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THE GERMAN TERROR
IN FRANCE

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THE GERMAN TERROR

IN FRANCE

An Historical Record o

ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE

LATB FELLOW 07 BALUOL COLIEGBy
OXFORD

NEW YORK
G£ORG£ H. DORAN COMPANY

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PREFACE

iHE German Terror in France" is a direct
continuation of "The Grerman Terror in
Belgium" which was published several
months ago. The chapters are numbered consecutively
throughout the two volumes, and between them they
cover all the ground overrun by the German Armies
in their invasion on the West.

For the purpose of the book and the scheme on
which it is written, the reader is referred to the preface
of the earlier volume. But it may be mentioned that,
while Chapter IV in the present volume is on the
same scale as those which precede it. Chapters V, VI,
and VII are considerably compressed. In these later
chapters, as in the others, full references to the sources
are given in the footnotes; but the sources themselves
are not quoted so freely in the text, and I have in many
cases been content to reprint summaries of the first-
hand evidence already made by the French and Bel-
gian Commissions, instead of re-analysing and re-sum-
marising the original material myself.

Arnold J. Toynbee.
20/^ June^ iQi?-

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER IV. FROM LIfiGE TO THE MARNE ... 15

(i) From Li±gr to the Scheldt 15

(ii) From the Scheldt to the Oise 27

(iii) Across the Oise 36

(iv) The Crossing of the Marne 46

(v) From LiibGB to the Sambre 60

(vi) From the Sambre to the Marne 87

CHAPTER V. BETWEEN NAMUR AND VERDUN . . 106

(i) Andbnne and Namur 106

(ii) Through Dinant to Champagne 120

(iii) Through Luxembourg to Champagne .... 138

(iv) Through Luxembourg to the Argonnb . . . 144

'-^

CHAPTER VI. THE RAID INTO LORRAINE .... 153

(i) From the Frontier to St. Mihiel . . . . 153

(ii) From the Frontier to Lun^villb 161

(iii) LuNiviLLE 172

(iv) Across the Meurthe 181

(v) In the Vosges 188

CHAPTER VII. FROM MALINES TO THE YSER ... 204

(i) Termonde and Alost 204

(ii) Across the Scheldt ......... 216

MAPS

THE INVADED COUNTRY

SKETCH MAP I

III

Frontispiece

4<
it
(I
It

it
II
II
II

End of Volume

Note. — ^A reference is given to a map at the foot of every page in

the text.

ILLUSTRATIONS

FOLLOWING PAGE

1. Senlis — Ruined Street 30

2. Senlis — Rue Bellon 30

3. Senlis — Ruins . 30

4. Barcy Church — Interior 30

5. courtacon 46

6. ChAtillon-sur-Morin 46

7. Reims Cathedral 62

8. ChAteau de Baye 62

9. COIZARD 62

10. St. Prix — the Church 62

11. SuipPES 78

12. HuiRON 78

13. AuvE . 78

14. Heiltz-le-Maurupt 78

15. Etr6py 94

16. Clbrmont-en-Argonne 94

17. sommeilles 94

i8. Vassincourt 94

19. Vassincourt no

20. Brabant-le-Roi no

21. RfeviGNY no

22. 'Sermaizb no

23. Sermaize 126

24. Sermaize 126

25. audun-le-romain 126

26. audun-le-romain ; .... 126

27. NOMENY 142

28. NOMENY 142

ILLUSTRATIONS

FOLLOWING PAGE

29. BAutRkvuA.E 142

30. Cr^vic 142

31. LuN^viLLE — ^Faubourg d'Einville 158

32. LuNiviLLE — Place des Carmes . 158

33. Gerb^viller 158

34. Gerb^viller 158

35. Gerb^viller — ^LA Pr^le 174

36. Gerb6viller — LA Pr^le 174

37. GERB&VILLER — ^LA Pr^LE 1 74

38. DoNCiiiRES 174

39. nossoncourt 190

40. M6nil-sur-Belvitte 190

41. St. Barbe 190

42. St. Barbe (House where Mlle. Haite was burnt alive) 190

43. Baccarat 206

44. Badonviller — Faubourg d'alsace 206

45. Badonviller — Church Interior 206

46. Raon l'Etape — Rue Jules Ferry 206

47. Raon l'Etape — Rue Jules Ferry 206

48. Raon. l'Etape — Les Halles 206

49. St. Michel-sur-Meurthe 214

30. OT. L/IE •.••......•••••• 214

51. Termonde 214

52. Termonde — Interior of Church 214

ABBREVIATIONS

Alphabet, letters of the: —

Capitals . . Appendices to the German White Book en-
titled: *'The Violation of International Law in
the Conduct of the Belgian People's War'* (dated
Berlin, loth May, 191 5); Arabic numerals aftex
the capital letter refer to the depositions con-
tained m each Appendix.

Lower Case .

Ann (ex) . .
Belg

Bland

Brycb . .

Garnets . .

Davignon .

Sections of the "Appendix to the Report of the
Committee on Alleged German Outrages, Appointed
by His Britannic Majesty's Government and Pre-
sided Over by the Right Hon, Viscount Bryce,
O.M.'* (Cd. 7895); Arabic niimerals after the
lower case letter refer to the depositions con-
tained in each section.

Annexes (numbered i to o) to the Reports of
the Belgian Commission (viae infra).

Reports (numbered i to xxii) of the Official Com-
mission of the Belgian Government on the Viola^
tion of the Rights of Nations and of the Laws and
Customs of War, (English translation pub-
lished, on behalf of the Belgian Legation, by
H.M. Stationery Ofl&ce, two volimies.)

"Germany's Violations of the Laws of War,
1914-5"; compiled under the Auspices of the
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and trans-
lated into English with an Introduction by
J. O. P. Bland. (London: Heinemann. 1915.)

Appendix to the Report of the Committee on
Alleged German Outrages appointed by His
Britannic Majesty's Government,

"Garnets de Route de Combattants Allemands;**
Traduction Integrale, Introduction et Notes
par Jacques de Dampierre, Archiviste-pal6o-
graphe. (Paris: Berger-Levrault. 1916.)

"Belgium and Germany/* Texts and Docu-
ments, preceded by a Foreword by Henri
Davignon. (Thomas Nelson and Sons.)
xi

ABBREVIATIONS

FiVB

Mercier.

Morgan .

Numerals, Roman
lower case

One

R(eply) . .

*' Scraps of Paper "

Two

R^publique Fran^aise: Documents Relatifs h
la Guerre 1914-1915-1916: Rapports et Prochs-
Verbaux d'Enguite de la Commission InstituSe
en Vue de Constater les Actes Commis par
VEnnemi en Violation du Droit des Gens: D^et
du 23 Septembre, 19 14. V. (Paris: Imprimerie
Nationale. 1916.)

Pastoral Letter ^ dated Xmas, 191 4, of His Emi-
nence Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines.

"German Atrocities: An Official Investigation^**
by J. H. Morgan, M.A., Professor of Constitu-
tional Law in the University of London. (Lon-
don; Fisher Unwin. 1916.)

Reports (numbered i to xxii) oj the Belgian Com"
mission (vide supra),

R^ublique Frangaise: Documents Relatifs k
la Guerre 1914-1915: Rapports et Proch- Ver-
baux d'Enqutte de la Commission Institute en
Vue de Constater les Actes Commis par VEnnemi
en Violation du Droit des Gens: D^cret du 23
Septembre, 19 14. I. (Paris: Imprimerie Na-
tionale. 19 1 5.)

"Reply to the German White Book of May 10,
I9I5* (Published, for the Belgian Ministry
of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by
Berger-Levrault, Paris, 191 6.)

"Scraps of Pai}er": German Proclamations in
Belgium and France. (Hodder and Stoughton
1916.}

L'Allemagne et le Droit des Gens: Attentats
contre les Personnes des Non-Combattants et
contre les Propri^t^s Privies: Deuxihne Rapport
Presents d m. le PrSsident du ConseU par la
Commission InstituSe en Vue de Constater les
Actes Commis par VEnnemi en Violation du
Droit des Gens: D^cret du 23 Septembre, 19 14.
(Paris: Imprimerie des Joumaux OiO&ciels.

1915.)

N.B. — Statistics, where no reference is given, are taken from the
Belgian Reply and the first and second Annexes to the Reports of the
Belgian Commission. They are based on official investigations.

THE GERMAN TERROR
IN FRANCE

THE GERMAN TERROR

IN FRANCE

IV. FROM LIEGE TO THE MARNE.

(i) From Liege to the Scheldt.

The Grerman advance from Liege towards Antwerp,
in the latter part of August, 1914, was accompanied
by terrible outrages upon the civil population. The
massacres at Aerschot, the bombardment of Malines,
the devastation of the villages between Malines and
Louvain, and the sack of the city of Louvain itself,
were all directly connected with this military move-
ment, and have made it notorious above all other
German operations in the European War. Yet from
the strategical point of view it was a subsidiary move-
ment — a diversion on the extreme right flank, to cover
the main Grerman armies in their sweep across Bel-
gium into the heart of France. Moving at an almost
incredible speed, these armies traversed a vast extent
of territory before they were checked and thrown back
at the Marne, and the outrages they committed in
their passage probably amounted to a greater sum of

[Frontispiece]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

crime and suffering than the horrors concentrated be^
tween the Belgian frontier and Liege, or between
the Demer and the Senne.

The right wing of the invaders was formed by the
araiies of von Kluck and von Biilow. Screened by
the covering force on their northern flank, these two
armies poured through the gap between the Belgian
fortresses of Antwerp and Namur — von Kluck on the
right and von Biilow on the left (von Kluck's right
flank columns wheeled through Brussels). Moving
abreast in an immense curve, they crossed the Scheldt
and the Sambre, the Somme and the Oise and the
Mame, and were defeated on the lines of the Grand and
the Petit Morin. At the end of their advance they
were still abreast, but their fronts were facing south
instead of west, and they were due east of Paris.

"At Rosoux" ^ wrote one of von Kluck's soldiers
in his diary on Aug. 17th, "wine by the cask. We
live like God in France ; the villa of a Belgian General
supplies everything." The Soldier had anticipated his
objective, for Rosoux lay within the first stage of
his march — from Liege to the Scheldt. He and his
fellows committed many worse outrages than drunk-
enness and pillage before they passed out of Belgium
again across the French frontier.

*Biyce pp. 170-1.

[Frontispiece]

LINSMEAU, MELIN, WAV RE

On the road from Jodoigne^ to Wavre, on Aug.
i8th, a detachment of Bavarian cyclists advanced upon
the Belgian outposts with the cure of jodoigne in front
of them as ^ screen. The Belgian fire, more fortunate
than on other occasions, struck down the leading
Bavarians and the cure escaped. The village of Litis-
mean suffered more severely. Eighteen civilians were
killed there, and the whole male population was car-
ried off to work for the invaders. A Belgian soldier *
saw three of the corpses at Linsmeau lying in the cow-
shed of a burnt farm. They were a man and two. chil-
dren — "one of them a boy of fourteen, the other a
girl of ten." Seven houses were burnt at Linsmeau
altogether. At Melin two houses were burnt and 200
plundered (out of 327) ; three of the inhabitants were
killed. Beyond Biez^ again, at the Bridge of Lives,
the Gremians used civilians as a screen — this time
women and children, who were brought down by the
Belgian fire. Thirty-seven houses were burnt alto-
gether, and twenty-seven civilians killed, in the Canton
of Jodoigne.

At Wavre fifty-eight houses were burnt, and a Bel-
gian despatch rider,*^ who traversed the town after the

*XV p. 21.

•k 19.

*vii p. 53 (f).

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

Geraians had passed, saw the body of a girl lying on
the pavement. It was naked, and had been ripped
open. Yet on Aug. 27th, after these events, the Burgo-
master of Wavre received the following communication

from the German Lieutenant-General von Nieber ® : —
"On Aug. 22nd, 1914, the General Commanding the

Second Army, General von Biilow, imposed on the
town of Wavre a war levy of 3,000,000 francs, pay-
able before Sept. 1st, to expiate the heinous conduct,
contrary to International Law and the customs of war,
of which the inhabitants were guilty in making a sur-
prise attack on the Grerman troops. . . . The town
of Wavre will be set on fire and destroyed if the pay-
ment is not made when due, without distinction of
persons; the innocent will suffer with the guilty."

It was "contrary to International Law," as formu-
lated in the Hague Convention of 1907 concerning the
Laws and Customs of War on Land, to impose a col-
lective penalty on Wavre for the acts of individual
inhabitants, even if these acts were serious and beyond
dispute. In the case of Wavre, however, no evidence
whatever is offered in the German White Book in
support of the sweeping accusations in the German
proclamation of Sept. 1st, 1914.

Beyond the Dyle the German fury increased.

*Dayignon p. 91.

[Map i]

THE DYLEy AUTREEGLISE

"About midday," writes a German diarist on Aug.
19th J "we reached a village which had been terribly
ravaged — Chouses burnt, everything smashed to atoms,
abandoned cattle wandering about the streets bellow-
ing, and inhabitants lying shot. A company of the
Infantry Regiment No. 75, which had bivouacked not
far from the village the night before, had been fallen
upon by the inhabitants and had made a shambles.
Sixty-nine good soldiers were killed or wounded. As
punishment, the village was wiped out.

"Aug. 20th. — ^We again passed through villages
whose inhabitants had fired. The usual punishment
had been inflicted."

The acts of the Germans are admitted by the Ger-
mans themselves; the alleged provocation on the Bel-
gian's side can be better judged by the conduct of von
Billow's troops in Ottignies and Mousty, where our
evidence is more complete.

Keeping in touch with von Kluck's left, von Billow's
main forces passed across Southern Brabant, sweeping
round the northern forts of Namur. So long as they
encountered no resistance from the Belgian Army they
spared the civilians their lives, and chiefly plundered
and burned. At Autre-Eglise they only killed three
civilians, but plundered 150 houses out of 232. They

'Bryce p. 178.

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

plundered another 150 houses at Ramillies^ and
burned 22 (out of 176). (At Noville'sur-Mehaigne
they plundered 185 and burned 3 out of 197; at
Thorembais 250 and 3 out of 269. In the Canton of
Perwez they plundered 527 and bumed 9 altogether.
Then, on Aug. 19th, von Billow's Uhlans were checked
by Belgian outposts at Ottignies^ on the line of the
Dyle, a few miles above Wavre. One Uhlan was
wounded and two were killed.

Early next morning the Belgian troops retired, and
the Germans poured into Ottignies and Mousty — a
village half an hour's distance off. They fired franti-
cally in the air; they fired at people who tried to run
away ; they began to plunder the houses and to set them
on fire. The majority of the civilians were herded to-
gether in the square — we have the narrative of one of
them who was carried away captive with 104 other
men, and was only released at Gembloux on Aug.
27th. The story is completed by the diaries of the
Germans themselves. "At Ottignies yesterday evening,'*
writes one of them on Aug. 20th, "an Oberleutnant
and 4 Uhlans were shot — ^by the civil population, in
the back (j/f). To-day the terrible punishment ensues.
The officer had also had his finger cut off, to have his
wedding ring stolen. This was not the first instance

'Anns. 5 and 6; Bland p. 138.

[Map i]

OTTIGNIES, MOUSTY

of such atrocities" (or, in other words, of the deliberate-
ly propagated legend of the Belgian francs-tireurs).
"The inhabitants," continues the diarist, "stood in the
market-square under guard. Several men were con-
demned to death by the court-martial and shot imme-
diately. The women went away in black — like a
solemn procession. How many innocent victims fell
by those shots just fired. The village was literally
plundered — the Blonde Beast is revealing himself.
The Huns and Landsknechts of the Middle Ages could
not have beaten it. The houses are still burning, and
where the fire was not enough, what is left is being
levelled with the ground. . . ."

This German repeated the legend, but he was not
easy in his mind. Another diarist, who passed through
Ottignies on the same date, speaks in plainer terms:
"March on Vays through Ottignies. Halt at Ottignies,
requisition a pig. Uhlan patrol killed here with one
officer. Place set on fire after we had passed through.
Court-martial. People always decent if we behave
civilly ourselves. In our company there is a good
tone — a contrast to others. Pioneers bad, artillery a
gang of robbers."

At the Dyle von Biilow swung round and headed
for the Sambre between Namur and Charleroi; von
IGuck, with his right wheeling through Brussels and

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

his left pivoting on Nivelles, swept westwards out of
Brabant towards the line of the Scheldt.

At Braine-le-Compte and Soignies^ in the Province
of Hainaut^ a number of houses were burnt.® At
Obourg ^^ the lunatic asylum, containing 200 women
patients, was set on fire. At Nimy ^ ^ the British were
entrenched to resist the German advance, and the
Gennans ran amok. They plundered and massacred,
and set the houses on fire. Eighty-four houses were
destroyed at Nimy, and 17 of the inhabitants, including
four women, were killed. The rest were driven for-
ward, as a screen, as the Germans pressed on to Mons.
For the British holding Mons at the top of the Avenue
de Berlaimont, this pitiful crowd of civilians was the
first indication that the Germans were within range.^^
"We waited for the advance of the Germans," states
a British officer; "some civilians reported to us that
they were coming down a road in front of us. On
looking in that direction we saw, instead of German
troops, a crowd of civilians — ^men, women and children
— waving white handkerchiefs and being pushed down
the road in front of a large number of German troops."
— "They came on as it were in a mass," states a British

•1 12.

so **

xxii p. 135.
"xxii pp. 13 5-6.
**§ 5, $, 8; XV p. 21.

[Map z\

OBOURGy NIMY, MONS

soldier, "with the women and children massed in front
of them. They seemed to be pushing them on, and I
saw them shoot down women and children who refused
to march. Up to this my orders had been not to fire,
but when we saw women and children shot, my ser-
geant said : 'It is too heartrending,' and gave orders to
fire, which we did." — "I saw the Grermans advancing
on hands and knees towards our position," states an-
other; "they were in close formation, and had a line
of women and children in front of their front rank.
Our orders at that time were not to fire on civilians
in front of the enemy."

A Belgian standing in a side-street ^^ saw the Grerman
tactics close at hand. He saw six of the victims shot
by the Germans for trying to get away. The Burgo-
master of Mons himself had been seized in the streets,
and was driven forward with the others.^* The Ger-
mans renewed these tactics on the other side of Mons
on Aug. 24th, when the British were in retreat.**^
"They had collected a number of women and children
from the houses in the town. ... I could see that the
Germans had their bayonets fixed and pointed to the
backs of the women and children, to make them ad-

-g9.

"xxii p. 136.

"g3»4i7t 10^ II.

[Map 2]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

vance." — "It was about 1 1 a. m. . . . They were being
pushed along by the Germans. One old man was
very old and bent. I noticed two women in particu-
lar who had two, or possibly three, children, and they
were holding them close in as if to shield them. One
of the women had a blue apron on. Altogether, I
suppose there were 16 to 20 women there, about a
dozen children, and half-a-dozen men. I was in the
last file, and I kept on looking round as we were re-
tiring. . . ."

This same screen was driven right on against the
British positions in Frameries; we have the evidence,
again, of British soldiers, who were waiting for the
Germans there. ^® "When they were motioned to draw
to the side by one of our own men,*' states a soldier,
"they were fired on by the Germans from behind for
doing so. I should think 50 people were shot down.
In some cases the children had been walking, in others
they were carried by the women."

A German diarist ^''^ gives his own version of these
events: "In fine spirits we marched next morning
through the village of Paturages^ that is to say, on Aug.
24th, before we had cleared the suburbs of the town
of Mons and set the houses on fire — we marched

"g 12-13.

"Prjrce p. 162.

[Map 2]

FRAMERIES, JEMAPPES, QUAREGNON

through the aforementioned village. Inhabitants came
in crowds out of the houses into the open. Here
heartrending scenes occurred; it was really terrible
to watch."

This was how the Germans made their way through
Mons. "Sept. i6th, behind Mons," writes another
German soldier ^® who passed this way when the work
was done. "Here again countless houses have been
destroyed, and the population looks bitter and
gloomy."

At Jemappes^^ west of Mons, a hundred houses were
burnt and about 70 people were killed. A hundred
and fifty houses were burnt at Quaregnon?^ "Jem-
appes," deposes a German prisoner ^^; "Pillage! As
for the inhabitants, not a soul left. One of my com-
rades takes a watch. Finally, on Aug. 25th, the French
frontier is crossed, and from that point onwards the
atrocities have been less."

Meanwhile, von Kluck's right wing, outflanking the
British left, bore down from Brussels upon Tournai
on Aug. 24th, with the Death's Head Hussars in the
van. At Rutnillies^'^ where they encountered French

"Bryce p. i8o.

"R p. 127 ; xxii p. 136.

"^xxii p. 186.

"R p. 127.

"xv pp. 21-2.

[Map 2]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

dragoons, they dragged the inhabitants out of their
houses, and with this screen ^^ in front of them they
made their day into Tournai itself. "I was taken to
Tournai," states a Belgian civilian from Antoing^^;
"there were about 400 civilian Belgian prisoners there
— ^men, women and children. A fight took place there
between French and Germans. All the prisoners, in-
cluding myself, were marched in front of the German
forces. Two of these who did not move quickly
enough were shot by the Germans." As the French
fell back through the city, the Germans recruited their
screen from the suburbs of Chateau and La TombeP
In the suburb of Morelle^ where the French troops
made a stand, the Germans seized and shot a number
of civilians in reprisals, burned a dozen houses, and
pillaged more. They shot a middle-aged civilian who
was helping a wounded French soldier in the street;
they shot a lame boy thirteen years old; they shot a
girl whom they had first raped in public.^® The
Burgomaster of Tournai, with the city councillors and
sheriffs, was brought under arrest to the H6tel-de-
Ville, to hear a proclamation condenming the city to
furnish 200 hostages and pay 2,000,000 francs in

"x p. 70.

xxu p. 134.
k 34-

[Map %\
26

TOURNAI, VALENCIENNES

gold. The money must be forthcoming within three
hours; otherwise the city would be destroyed and the
population exterminated. At the appointed time
1,700,000 francs were delivered, and the balance was
covered by a promissory note, which the municipal
councillors signed. But the councillors and the Bishop
(an old man of seventy- four) were still detained; they
were carried off that night to Ath, and on Aug. 25th
400 more of the inhabitants were forced to accompany
the Grerman advance, and were not released till they
had been 36 hours on the march.

(ii) From the Scheldt to the Oise.

At Toumai the Germans crossed the Scheldt, and
pushed forward into France.

"Aug. 25th," writes a German diarist,^'^ "marched
to Orchies. Houses searched. All civilians taken pris-
oners. A woman was shot because she did not halt at
the word of command, but tried to run away. There-
upon the whole place was set on fire. At 7 o'clock we
left Orchies in flames and marched towards Valen-
ciennes.

"Aug. 26th. Marched off at 9 a. m. towards the
eastern entrance of Valenciennes to occupy the town

^ Bland p. 123.

[Map 2]

FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

and keep back fugitives. All the male inhabitants from
18 to 48 were arrested and sent to Germany."

Between St. Amand and Valenciennes a Belgian
civilian, whom the Germans had dragged with them
from the other side of Brussels,^^ saw a chateau pillaged
and set on fire. "After setting fire to the chateau, the
soldiers placed the baron" (who owned it) "with
twenty other civilians who lived near by, consisting
of young and old men, and also some women and
even children, and shot them all. . . . The soldiers
smashed the windows of every house on the way. . . .
I saw three workmen's cottages near the chateau and
five or six other houses further along the road to
Valenciennes burnt by the Germans. They first shot
at the houses and the occupants fled and then the
Germans fired the houses. I do not know what hap-
pened to the occupants. . . ."

The invaders spread over the region between the
Scheldt and the Somme. At Beaumont-Hamel^^^ in
the Department of the Somme ^ a village o:^ 380 souls,
they imposed a war contribution of 8,000 francs on the
commune, threatening to carry the men away captive
if the money were not paid. The mayor raised 1,800
francs, and the Germans obtained the rest by robbing
private individuals. A week after their arrival they

**1 12.

"Five 131-4.

[Map 2]

BEAUMONT-HAMEL, LAHOUSSOYE

accused four women of espionage on frivolous grounds.
An officer of .the German Infantry Regiment No. no,
who examined them, offered three of them their lives
if they would denounce the fourth. They refused,
and were given three minutes to change their minds.
*Then," states the fourth victim, "we were dragged
to the church wall, the officer superintending in per-
son. He had his watch in his hand. We were given
one minute to confess or die. We did not give in.
He counted, 'One . . . two . . . ,' but the fatal
'three' did not issue from his lips" — they were led
back again, and given half-an-hour's grace more. They
entrusted what money they had on their persons to
another woman, but the officer interrupted the trans-
action, coimted the money out, and appropriated it
for the benefit of the war contribution. He told the
fourth woman that slie should be "buried alive in
front of the church," but finally the Colonel of the
iioth Regiment commuted their penalty to imprison-
ment. A hundred and seventy inhabitants of Beau-
mont-Hamel altogether were taken as prisoners to
Cambrai. After five months' detention the elders were
sent home, but they were brutally separated from the
children, who were not allowed to return.

The Germans entered Lahoussoye ^ on Aug. 30th,

"Five 105-7.

[Map 2]

FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

pillaged the shops and hoxises, rifled the linen from
the drawers, and slaughtered the cattle. They raped
a woman of eighty, and murdered a man of sixty-five.
He was found in his cellar, with a bullet in his heart,
on the following day.

Pont'Noyelle^^^ too, was plundered on Aug. 30th.
A paralysed man, who could not open his gate quickly
enough for the Germans' satisfaction, was ridden
down by an officer on a horse. The Germans stole
seven or eight hundred bottles of his wine, and com-
pelled him to witness their debauch, forcing a pickel-
haube on to his head, and treating him with every kind
of indignity. They btole his provisions, plate and
horses, and jewels to the value of more than 1,500
francs. At Querrieu ®^ a refugee returning to look
after his cattle was killed by a sabre-stroke in the
stomach. All but four of the houses in Querrieu were
plundered, and two were burnt.

At Mericourt'Sur'Somme^^ three German soldiers
dragged a girl of seventeen into a cellar, violated her
in succession, and seized all the jewellery and money
on her person. Another woman, enticed out of her
house at night by a soldier with the story that her

•*Five 101-4.
"Five 108-111.
*• Five 90-4.

[Map 2]
30

PROYART, FRAMERVILLE, MAUCOURT

husband was ill, was saved from violation by neigh-
bours who went with her.

At ProyarU^^ on Aug. 29th, an Uhlan patrol fired
down into a cellar where the inhabitants of a house
had just taken refuge, and killed an old man of sev-
enty-four. They broke everything in this house, and
sacked the whole village. "Six or seven deaconesses
in black clothes, with white coifs and Red Cross arm-
lets, went into the houses with the soldiers and took
anything that pleased them." — "On Sept. 1st," states
another witness, "I saw the Germans load M. Wable's
furniture on motor cars and then set fire to the house
— ^throwing in something that exploded." — "I saw
quite distinctly," states a French soldier who was
lying wounded in the street, "how they went from
house to house, setting them on fire. I saw them set
a dozen houses on fire in this way, notably a big
farm."

On Aug. 29th the Germans also burned seven houses
and two barns at Framerville?^ Their methods show
that the incendiaries of Framerville and Proyart were
the same. "One heard an explosion," states the cure
of Framerville, "and then the house took fire imme-
diately. Each time a building was burning they played

•*Five 96-8.
"Five 99-100.

[Map a]
31

FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

a pianola which they had taken from M. Francois Fou-
card's house." At Proyart, while M. Wable's house
was in flames, they had danced to the sound of a
gramophone.

At Maucourt^^^ on Aug. 29th, a Gemian cyclist pa-
trol found four agricultural labourers sitting in a cafe.
He levelled his rifle at them, and two of them tried
to escape. The German fired twice at the first, who
dragged himself a hundred yards and then died. The
second took refuge in a bam. More Germans then
came up and demanded matches to burn the barn over
his head, but finding none they put five bullets into his
brain. Next day they wounded a French dragoon
from an ambush in the village, and finished him off
with the butt-ends of their rifles in order to plunder
his pockets. On Sept. 25th they returned in force to
Maucourt, and when the French artillery opened on
them th^y seized five men of the village as a screen to
cover their retreat. "I was arrested," states one of
these victims, "by a German sergeant with a serrated
bayonet. . . . They immediately placed us in front
of them, telling us that the French were going to kill
us. . . . We could not escape, for we had a soldier
with fixed bayonet on either side of us." — "Four
times," states the village schoolmaster, "we were

"Five 1x4-121.

[Map 2]

MAUCOURT, LIANCOURT, WELLES

knocked over by the shock of the (French) shells."
Returning next day, the Germans imposed a war con-
tribution on the commune. "How many inhabitants
have you?" asked the Grerman commandant. "Three
hundred and fifty," he was told. "I must have lo
francs per inhabitant," he answered. "If you have
not produced the sum in gold or silver within an hour,
everyone will be searched; anyone found with money
on him will be shot, the village will be burnt, and
we shall carry off hostages." Fifteen hundred francs
in gold were paid by the village baker, the rest by
other individuals. "No receipt was given," states a
witness. "Our commune was completely pillaged. I
found my own house sacked, the cloth torn off the
billiard-table, and everything in a state of indescrib-
able confusion." On the -same day, Sept. 26th, the
French troops returned, and Maucourt was delivered.

At Liancourt'Fosse '^ the Grermans, fighting with a
French regiment for the possession of the village,
seized twelve of the inhabitants as a screen, and drove
them forward in three ranks. The French slackened
their fire, but three of the civilians were seriously
wounded, and another mortally.

In the Commune of Welles-Ferennes^^^ in the De-
partment of the Oise^ the Germans surprised two farm

■^ Five 126-7.
"Five 7a.

[Map 3]

FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

lads, eighteen and nineteen years old, driving in a cart
to Montigny to buy bread. One of them, wounded in
the stomach, dragged himself back to the farm and
died. The other was taken to Creve-Cceur ^® and shot
while trying to escape. This was on Aug. 31st, and
the Germans had entered Creve-Coeur that day. "Many
of them were drunk. They broke open the doors of
a number of houses of which the owners were away,
and gave themselves up to pillage. . . . Soldiers
dragged a young man *^ up to two officers on horse-
back, and one of them shot him point-blank." At
Ferrieres^^ six houses were set on fire by means of
bombs, and a man and his wife suffocated in their
cellar, because a French soldier had fired in the street
and taken refuge in a house. At Ravenel^^ on Sept.
1st, the Germans loaded a wagon with their plunder;
on Sept. 13th they shot down a civilian who was bicy-
cling along the road. At N ourard-le-Franc^^ on Sept.
3rd, three Germans with Red Cross armlets burned
six houses and a bam, and fired indiscriminately in
the stress. They wounded one man — ^his wife died
of shock. "After this," states a witness, "they left

"Five 73-4.

**Not identical with the farm boy from Welles-Perennes,

*'Five 75.

^One 374-5.

*'One 414-5; Five 88-9.

[Map 3]

MORTEMER, MONCHY, CHOISY

in the direction of Mesnil-sur-Bulles^'' and here,** on
Sept. 4th, three Germans (evidently the same) shot
a professor on the doorstep of a house. Uhlans had
been looting in Mesnil two days before.

Mortetner^^ on the road from Roye to Compiegne,
was pillaged by the Germans on Aug. 31st. Next
day they demanded tobacco from the grocer, M.
Huille. Having none, he guided them to the tobacco-
nist's, and was shot point-blank as he turned to go
home. At Marqueglise^^ the Germans carried off
eight civilians as hostages, including the cure and the
mayor, and shot four other hostages — two Frenchmen
from St. Quentin and two Belgians from Jemappes
— when, they retreated through Marqueglise on Sept.
16th. At Monchy-Humieres^^'^ on Aug. 31st, a Ger-
man officer ordered three Uhlans to fire on a crowd of
about forty people, because he thought he heard the
word "Prussian" muttered among them. A man and
a little girl were wounded, and a boy of fifteen was
killed.

Choisy-au'BaCi^^ in the angle between the Oise and
the Aisne, was entered by the Germans on Aug. 31st.

**One 412-3.
*Five 76-9.
"One 430-1.
*'0ne 372-3.
**0ne 416-8.

[Map 3]
35

ACROSS THE OISE

"On Sept. 1st and 2nd," states the town clerk, "they
deliberately burned a quarter of the houses in Choisy,
on the absolutely false pretext that they had been fired
on. Before setting the houses on fire they pillaged
the whole place under their officers' eyes. Two mili-
tary doctors with Red Cross armlets pillaged Madame
Binder's house with their own hands. The booty was
carried off in carts stolen on the spot. Forty-five
houses were destroyed." On Sept. 8th the Germans
shot in his garden an inhabitant of Choisy who had
just returned from Compiegne. They carried off four
others on their retreat — one escaped, one is known to
have been shot, and the others were not heard of again.

(iii) Across the Oise.

Between the junction of the Aisne and a point due
north of Paris, von Kluck's Army made their passage
of the Oise, and Compiegne *® was the first place they
reached on the further bank of the river. From the
famous Palace of Compiegne only a few objects were
taken, but Count Orsetti's chateau, facing it, was com-
pletely sacked — "especially by non-commissioned offi-
cers, in the sight and with the cognisance of their
superiors. Plate, jewels, and other objects of value
were carried off, and the pillagers indulged in a regu-

•Qne 4Z9-4a3.

[Map 3]

COMPIEGNE, NOGENT, CREIL

lar orgy. Part of the plunder was brought into the
courtyard of the chateau, checked, entered, packed,
and loaded on two furniture vans flying Red Cross
flags." This is the testimony of the Director of the
Museum at Compiegne, and he adds that a German
captain, appealed to to interfere, replied: "It is war,
and besides — I have no time."

Meanwhile, von Kluck's right wing, heading for
Paris, arrived on Sept. 2nd at NogenMur-OiseJ^ "The
Germans," states a witness, "forced their way into my
house, broke the doors and windows, smashed the fur-
niture, and carried me off, mishandling me on the way.
They dragged me as far as Creil, and both at Nogent
and at Creil I saw them entering houses to pillage
them. As they came out the houses took fire. About
eight houses," he states, "were burnt at Nogent" ; and
another inhabitant describes how, after they had
broken open his shutters and taken everything from
his house that the> wanted, they attempted to burn it
by drenching a bundle of clothes in petrol and setting
them alight.

From Nogent the Germans passed straight on to
CreiL^^ "They came to Creil on Sept. 2nd," states
the Mayor's Assessor, M. Georges, "and their occupa-
tion lasted till Sept. 9th. There was wholesale pil-

"One 405-6.

"One 39S-404; Bland p. 121.

[Map 3]

ACROSS THE OISE

lage, and 43 houses were burnt by the enemy by means
of fuses and grenades. To palliate these excesses, they
alleged that they had been fired on by civilians, but
I certify that this excuse is absolutely false. None
of my fellow-citizens committed the slightest act of
hostility. If shots were fired, they were fired at the
moment of the Germans' entry by the French military
engineers who were blowing up the bridge." This
testimony is confirmed by the Germans themselves.
"Creil," writes a diarist; "the iron bridge had been
blown up. For this whole streets were burnt and civil-
ians shot." — "I saw an Uhlan kill M. Parent," states
a restaurant keeper -at Creil, "as he was returning
quietly from lunch. The Uhlan fired at a distance of
seven or eight paces, and his victim was hit full in the
chest and fell stiff. Four or five Uhlans threw them-
selves on his body and rifled it." Another inhabitant,
M. Alexandre, was found lying in the street with his
skull smashed in. A third, M. Breche, a barkeeper,
was carried off and shot because he could not serve
the Germans fast enough. "A man killed," remarked
an officer; "we think nothing of it, one sees so many.
Besides, we are fired at everywhere, so we kill and
bum." He added that Breche was a blockhead.

The Germans intended the pillage of Creil to be
systematic. A group of civilian prisoners were in-
terrogated in turn as to who were the richest men in

[Map 3]

NERY, TRUMILLY, CREPT

their respective quarters of the town. About lOO civil-
ians were seized in Creil altogether and were compelled
to dig trenches for the Germans and to cut down a
crop of maize to improve their field of fire. The Ger-
mans kept them working a week, during which time
they gave them nothing to eat, but the women of Creil
managed to bring them food.

At Nery^^ on Sept. 1st, the Germans seized the
manager of a sugar factory and his staff — twenty-six
persons, including women and children — and used
them as a screen to protect their flank against the
British artillery fire. A foreman was wounded; a
woman was hit in the stomach and died within forty-
eight hours. The Germans plundered the whole vil-
lage of Nery, breaking in the doors, and burned one
house down. They plundered Trumilly^^ on Sept.
3rd. A lady complained to a colonel of a non-com-
missioned officer who had stolen jewels from her worth
10,000 francs, but the colonel replied with a smile:
"I am sorry, Madame, but it is war." The same non-
commissioned officer forced another woman to lie with
him by threatening her with his rifle — ^her husband
was with the colours. Crepy-en-Valois ^^ was entered
on Sept. 2nd, and for four days the Germans poured

" One 376-8.
"One 424-9.
**One 407.

[Map 3] ,

ACROSS THE OISE

through. The place was thoroughly pillaged — linen
and jewellery were, as usual, most eagerly sought after,
and all the safes were broken open. The Germans
reached Villers-Saint-Frambourg^^^ too, on Sept. 2nd,
at 9 o'clock at night. "They seized horses, slaughtered
cattle, stole bicycles, and emptied nearly all the cel-
lars." They also murdered here a civilian brought
from Senlis^® — tieing him to a post with his hands
behind his back and bayoneting him to death. "He
was not killed by bullets, for his stomach had been
gashed open, and the wall behind him showed no trace
of bullet-marks." That night at Villers-Saint-Fram-
bourg a soldier violated a woman, who took refuge
with neighbours when the man had gone away. "I
was well advised to do so," she remarks, "for num-
bers of soldiers came to my house, directed, no doubt,
by the first. They broke the windows out of spite at
not finding me there, and stole my pig, poultry, and
rabbits, as well as my pots and pans."

On Sept. 2nd Senlis ^'^ was sacked. • "About half-
past three in the afternoon," states the town clerk of
Senlis, "I was informed that the Germans were at the
H6tel-de-Ville, and that the Mayor, M. Odent, was
asking for me. . . . The Mayor was surrounded by a

"One 396-7.
■•Cp. One 387.
"One 379-395.

[Map 3]

SENLIS— CIVILIAN SCREEN

group of officers, and one of them, doubtless the high-
est in rank, said to him: 'Our men have been fired
on/ When M. Odent protested, he repeated: 'Our
men have been fired on.' I then proposed to M.
Odent that I should go and find his Assessors, but he
did not wish it, and said that *one victim was enough/ "
After this, the Mayor was led off by the German officer
to the Hotel du Grand Cerf, to expedite the serving
of dinner for forty persons which the officer had or-
dered; the officer also ordered the Mayor to see that
the town was lighted up that night. "About ten min-
utes later," continues the town clerk, who had been
requested by the Mayor to see to this order, "a fusil-
lade — ^the first firing there had been — ^broke out be-
tween the German troops in the Rue de la Republique
and French soldiers who, as I afterwards learnt, were
posted in the neighbourhood of the hospital."

The Germans immediately seized a number of civil-
ians and drove them down the Rue de la Republique
as a screen.*^® "I was acting as interpreter between
M. Dupuis and the Germans," states one woman, "not
far from my house. The Germans dragged me off.
My little daughter Claire, five years old, saw me in
the middle of them and came running up. I asked
permission to take her back to the house ; the Germans

"One 381, 385-6, 391.

[Map 3]

ACROSS THE OISE

refused. If we are not fired on,' they said, 'you shall
be released/ Then they made us walk down the mid-
dle of the road, while they themselves kept to the
side. At a certain moment a shot came from a window
— I saw a black face. The house was instantly riddled
with bullets. Opposite the hospital, while we were
still walking in the middle of the (German) troops,
the Moroccans opened a fusillade. The Geraians re-
plied, and my child was wounded by a bullet in the
thigh — the wound is not healed yet." ^® — "I was taken
along to the neighbourhood of the hospital," states an-
other inhabitant, "with various other civilians, and
when the black troops fired on the Germans, the latter
exposed us to the bullets and compelled us to walk
in the middle of the road."

Meanwhile, the Germans were setting the town on
fire. "The enemy," states M. de Parseval, one of the
Mayor's Assessors, "were furious at meeting with re-
sistance, and, pretending that it was civilians who had
fired on them, deliberately started conflagrations in
two districts of the town. A hundred and five houses
were burnt on Sept. 2nd and the following day." ^® —
"On Sept. 2nd and 3rd," states a gardener,®* "I was
constantly about in the streets, keeping an eye on the

"Nov. 20th, 1 914.

~ODe 379.

"One 380; cp. 386, 39a

[Map 3]
42

SENLIS— MURDERS

premises under my charge. I saw the Geraians in the
act of setting fire to several houses. They came up
in column, and, at a whistle from an officer, certain
of them stepped out from the ranks to break in the
doors and house-fronts with axes. Others then came
and set the house on fire. After that, patrols came
round to see if the fire had caught properly, and shot
into any houses where the flames were not spreading
quickly enough. They all shouted like savages while
they were at work. To start the fire, the incendiaries
used tubes, fuses, and grenades."

Incendiarism was accompanied by murder. "We
were exposed to the French bullets," states one of a
group of four men who were driven in the civilian
screen.^^ "I immediately saw Leymarie fall mortally
wounded, and as I was propping him against a wall
I was struck myself by a bullet above the knee. Le-
vasseur was killed next. At this moment a (German)
officer appeared, made me get up, ordered me to show
him my wound, and proceeded to fire a bullet point
blank into my shoulder. My fourth companion was
also wounded by a German." Four other men went
to look at a granary which the Germans had set on
fire. They were shot at by a patrol of Uhlans, and
took refuge in a stable, but when they ventured out

•One 384.

[Map 3]

ACROSS THE OISE

again they were received with another volley. One
was killed outright; a second had three fingers carried
away and was wounded in the groin — ^he died in hos-
pital after a week.®^ A bar-keeper, whose premises the
Grermans were looting^ was dragged out and shot dead
on his threshold for raising his hand.®* A householder,
whose door had been broken in and who was bringing
the Germans wine on their demand, was found by his
wife, a few minutes afterwards, lying dead on the stairs,
with a bullet wound through his chest.®*^ A feeble-
minded person lying in bed in the hospital was shot
dead by a German officer who forced his way thither
in a state of frenzy.®* Ten civilians altogether were

murdered here and there in Senlis on Sept. 2nd by
individual German soldiers and officers. The German
Higher Command completed the work by the massa-
cre of the Mayor and six other citizens in the Com-
mune of Chamant, outside the town.

"We were led next to the hamlet of Poteau,'' states
an inhabitant of Senlis who had survived the ordeal
in the Rue de la Republique.®'^ "Here we found the
Mayor, M. Odent, who was a prisoner, and were taken

"One 3S9-390.
•*One 386.
•One 388.
"•One 395.
•'One 381.

[Map 3]
44

SENLIS— MURDERS

along with him to Chamant. The Mayor was bru-
tally maltreated by German soldiers on the way. They
snatched his gloves from him and threw them in his
face ; they struck him violently over the head with his
cane. At Chamant two officers took command of our
guards. Then a third arrived, and walked up to M.
Odent. Twice over he charged him with having fired,
or incited others to fire, on the German troops, and
then informed him, in spite of his protestations of
innocence, that he was going to be shot. The Mayor
then asked permission to bid us farewell. It was
granted him, and he came and shook our hands, say-
ing: *I am going to be shot. Good-bye.' He was im-
mediately led away to a distance of about a dozen
yards, and two soldiers were ordered to fire on him.
He fell without a cry, and was buried immediately."
— "He advanced very bravely to the spot," adds an-
other witness ®® ; "it was eleven o'clock at night."

The six other victims had already been massacred.
"On Sept. 12th," states the municipal clerk of the
works,®® "I went to Chamant to see to the disinterment
of M. Odent's body. I also had the bodies of six
other persons who had been shot by the Germans dis-
interred. . . . All were perfectly well recognised and

One 382.
One 394.

[Map 3]
45

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

identified by members of their families. Some of
them had wounds in the chest, others in the head."

(iv) The Crossing of the Marne.

The treatment of Senlis on Sept. 2nd was the meas-
ure of what Paris had to expect within the next few
days. At Gouvieux^'^^ east of Senlis in the direction
of the Oise, Uhlan advance-guards fired on a woman
driving with her son and daughter in a trap— the son
and daughter died of their wounds ; the mother, though
seriously wounded, survived — and in the same com-
mune a young man was murdered as he was bicycling
along a road. Paris was barely twenty miles off, but
at this point von Kluck suddenly changed direction,
and, swerving aside from Paris, headed south-eastward
for the Mame.

At Baron ^^ a civilian, M. Alberic Magnard, fired
on the Germans who had surrounded his villa, killing
one soldier and wounding another — the first authenti-
cated case of firing by a civilian in the whole course
of von Kluck's advance from Liege. The villa was
set on fire, and M. Magnard shot himself in the flames.
In further reprisals the commune was plundered — "un-
der the direction of ofRcers," states the notary, "or,

'•Five 84-7.
"One 408-41 z.

[Map 3]
46

BARON, DOVr, BABCT

at any rate, with their consent. One officer forced
me to open my safe," he continues, "and took posses-
sion, in my presence, of a sum of 8,300 francs which
the safe contained. I refused at first to obey, but he
ordered two men to load their rifles. ... I saw an-
other officer wearing nine women's rings on his fingers,
and three bracelets on either arm. . . . The soldiers
who burned M. Magnard's house bore the word 'Gi-
braltar* on their sleeves. The officer with the rings
on his fingers and the bracelets on his arms belonged
to the same corps."

At Douy'la-Ramee^^^ in the Department of Seine'
et'Mame^ the Grermans burned down the mill and tried
to throw a mill-hand into the flames. No provocation
was given them at Douy, and they had been inquiring
after the exact situation of the mill at the villages on
their way. Their plans were going amiss; they were
nearing the tuming-point of their progress, and, like
the other Grerman armies abreast of them, they vented
their rage on everything they encountered on their
path. At Barcy '^^ they burned down the archive ro<xn
at the Mairie, shelled the hospital, and killed eighteen
wounded French soldiers lying there. At Penchard ''^

"One 8-9.
"One 7.
"Odc $-6.

[Map 3]
47

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

they bumed three houses; at Neufmontiers'^^ three
ricks and a farm. At Chauconin '^^ they carried off two
vanloads of booty, and bumed five houses and six
bams. Chauconin looks down from its hill upon
Meaux and the valley of the Marne, but the Germans
did not descend on Meaux or cross the river here. They
had to face the threat to their flank from Paris, and,
leaving a rearguard to meet it, they swerved, again,
still further to the east.

They reached the Mame at Vareddes^'^ pillaged the
place, and carried off seventeen hostages, including the
cure. Three at least of these hostages were killed —
one of them a man seventy-three years old. "He was
taken to Coulombs," states his brother-in-law^®; "by
Wednesday he could no longer walk; next day he was
given a bayonet stroke in the forehead and a revolver
shot in the heart. I myself brought his body back
from Coulombs and buried it at Congis." At Congis
the Germans arrested a man sixty-six years old near
a spot called Gue-a-Tresmes, tied him to a cattle-
tether, and shot him — out of spite, because they found
no money in his purse. (Two civilians from Vareddes
were compelled to remove corpses at Gue-a-Tresmes,

"One 8.
"One 1-2.
"One 17-19; cp. 4.
" One 4.

[Map 3]
48

VAREDDES, LIZY, MARY

and clean up the chateau there J®) After this murder
the Germans prepared to set Congis on fire. "They
stuflFed twenty houses with straw and drenched them
with petrol, but the arrival of the French troops fortu-
nately prevented them from carrying out their pur-
pose."

At Lizy-sur-Ourcq^^ they pillaged systematically
from Sept. 3rd to Sept. 9th — the period of their occu-
pation. The contents of chemists' shops, ironmongers*
shops, bicycle shops were loaded on motor-lorries and
horse-waggons and hand-carts. "The most eager pil-
lagers were men wearing the Red Cross badge." — "If
one attempted to stop and watch them at work, they
came and thrust their revolvers at one's chest." The
Inspector of Gendarmerie at Lizy states that all the
communes in his district were plundered in this thor-
oughgoing fashion, and the booty carried off in vehi-
cles commandeered from the inhabitants. Mary-sur'
Marne^'^ too, was plundered, and a customer was killed
here at a bar by a German cavalry patrol. At Mary the
Germans carried off their plunder in their own army
carts. At May-en-Multien ®^ they carried it off in mo-
tor-lorries. Here, too, there was wanton firing on civil-

"One 19.
**One lO'iz.
"One 20-I.
"One 13-15.

[Map 3]
49

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

ians — ^none were killed outright, but a woman lost her
arm and died in hospital at Meaux.®'

This was west of the Ourcq, but several of von
Kluck's corps came down to the east of that river,
moving from Compiegne through Villers-Cotterets.
Near Vivieres,^* in the Department of the Aisne^ on
Sept. 2nd, they shot an agricultural labourer seventy-
seven years old. "My men were a little too quick,"
the Greraian non-commissioned officer remarked — ^the
old man had not heard, at 3CX5 yards, the officer's order
to halt. At Dampleux^^^ on the edge of the forest, they
shot a civilian from Villers-Cotterets. At Noroy-sur'
Ourcq ®® they murdered a garde-champetre, sixty-nine
years old, in his cottage. He was found with his skull
beaten in, lying in a pool of blood. At Chouy ^'^ they
carried oflE the blacksmith, and his wife had no news
of him till she heard, a month later, that he had died
in hospital at Soissons. He was seen on Sept. Qth at
Neuilly-Saint-Front. "I saw him pass," states a wit-
ness, "tied to the tail of a horse, going through the
town in the direction of Chateau-Thierry. An hour
later I saw him come back in the same plight. By
then his face was covered with blood, and appeared

"One i6.
•• Five 6i.
"Five 63-4.
"Five 69-71.
''Five 67-8; q>. 6a.

[Map 3]

NEDILLY, BREUIL, SABLONNIERES

to have been slashed with a sabre. I heard of his
death at Soissons later." NeuiUy-Saint'-Front ^^ was
pillaged by the Germans. They requisitioned an in-
habitant to remove their plunder with his own horses
and cart, and then sent him to an internment camp in
Grermany. At Breuil^^^ near Neuilly, they wounded
two women on their way into town to buy bread —
one of them was injured seriously.

Crossing the Ourcq, they pillaged Brumetz^^ on
Sept. 3rd ; on the 4th they burned a tobacconist's shop
there, on the 7th a chateau. Crossing the Mame,
above its junction with the Ourcq, they came, on Sept.
4th, to Jouarrey^ in the Department of Seine-et-Marne^
and plundered it in the usual way. "The loot was
loaded on motor-cars marked with the Red Cross. The
troops followed one another in an endless stream, and
the pillage began again as each new corps arrived —
as far as there was anything left to take. The total
losses notified exceed 600,000 francs."

Sablonnieres^^ on the Petit Morin, was entered by
the Germans on Sept. 4th. Their cavalry caught a
civilian on a bicycle, and made him ride behind them
when they were fired at by French chasseurs and were

"Five 6a.
"One 435-6.
••Five 58.
•* One 44-8.

[Map 3]
51

THE CROSSING OP THE MARNE

beating a retreat. An officer fired his revolver at him ;
a trooper knocked him off his bicycle with his lance;
finally, they stripped him to the waist, and in four
encounters with the French compelled him to stand
erect while they themselves took cover from the bul-
lets. "On Sept. 4th," states a peasant of Sablon-
nieres, "I was minding my cows in a field near the
village, when a German infantrjnnan, who was lag-
ging a little behind his column, knelt down and cov-
ered me with his rifle from about 150 yards off. I
said to myself: 'He is not really going to fire at me,'
but the thought was hardly in my mind when the rifle
cracked and I received a bullet in the left cheek. You
can see the scar." — "My commune was thoroughly pil-
laged," states the Mayor of Sablonnieres. "A cane-
trunk factory was particularly badly looted. The
stolen trunks were used for carrying off the rest of the
plunder. A bicycle shop was also sacked, as well as
a general shop and some private houses." On Sept.
8th, when the Germans were being driven out, one of
them wounded a civilian who had taken refuge under
a bridge. The man was carried to a British military
ambulance, and died.

At Rebais^^^ on Sept. 4th, the Germans, as they
entered, shot down several British troopers who were

"*Onc 49-53* 60-a.

[Map 3]

REBAIS— MURDERS

retiring before their advance. The Englishmen lay
in the street, and one of them, pinned down by his
dead horse, lifted his arm in token of distress. A
Geraian officer came up and shot him through the head.
A second Englishman had got to his feet and raised
both amis in surrender, but a German private felled
him with his rifle-butt and finished him off with re-
peated blows. "Three times," states a witness, "I
heard him cry for mercy." After this, the Germans
gave themselves up to pillage. They pillaged a jew-
eller's shop in the usual way, loading its contents on
a waggon at the door. "Then they bored holes in
the walls and the floor, and, an instant later, the
neighbours saw that the shop was on fire. They no-
ticed the soldiers throwing in grenades to make the
fire catch quicker." — "I saw one soldier," states an-
other witness, "set fire to three houses in succession.
He broke the window-panes and threw in blazing
straw." The pillage and arson were accompanied by
extreme personal violence. An old man of seventy-
nine was hit repeatedly over the head, had his watch
stolen from him and 800 francs, and was shot at with
a revolver — the bullet grazed his forehead. A woman
was beaten over the head and about the body, stripped
naked, and kept for an hour and a hialf in this con-
dition in the middle of a crowd of German soldiers.
''Finally," she states, "they bound me to my counter

[Map 3]

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

and signified their intention of shooting me. There
were quite a number of officers among them. At the
moment when, without doubt, they were going to
carry their threat out, they were called away to an-
other house. They left me in charge of a soldier who
told me he was an Alsatian. This soldier unbound
me, and I escaped." The next day, Sept. 5th, they
hanged a woman because she resisted their attempts to
violate her (after looting her shop). "My feet," she
states, "were already about twenty inches from the
ground, when I managed to get my penknife out of my
pocket, open it, and cut the cord. I fell to the ground,
and my assailants began to belabour me with blows.
An officer, fetched by someone who had seen what was
going on, ordered them to go away. They obeyed, but
came back before long, and tried — ^unsuccessfully — to
break open my shutters."

• In a village between Rebais and Coulommiers the
body of a woman was found by the British troops.
"She had been stabbed between the breasts," states
a British corporal,®' "and was quite dead. The priest
said she had been outraged. The Germans had, I
think, left the village the night before. The. house
and all the other houses had been ransacked and
turned upside down." At Saint'Denis4eS'Rebais^^

"Brycc p. 193.
••One 54-d.

[Map 3]
54

SAINT'DENIS, COVLOMMIERS

too, a woman was violated by an Uhlan, but was not
killed.

"At Coulommiers^^ on the Grand Morin, a German
officer arrested the Procureur de la Republique. The
Procureur had not known where oats were to be found
in the town, and they had now been found by the
Germans themselves. The officer broke out into abuse :
"You are a liar, you pig." — "You pig, you shall be
shot." — "You pig, shut your mouth." — "If you have
not found more oats within an hour, you shall be shot."
— ^^We know the town is rich; a million francs, two
millions, could be exacted here; if to-morrow morn-
ing, by 8 o'clock, you have not collected 100,000
francs, you shall be shot, and the town shall be bom-
barded and burnt." The Procureur, with the Mayor
and the Town Clerk, was shut up in the lavatory of
a private house for the night. A soldier showed the
Town Clerk a bucket of petrol on the stairs: "If we
are fired on, we shall send a shot into that bucket and
bum the house with you in it." At 2 in the morning
they were led out to be shot. The firing-party cleaned
their arms and lined up opposite them; the prisoners
stood thus for 20 minutes, then, instead, they were
driven along with the army, and finally released on
the road. There was the usual pillage at Coulommiers

"One 30-2.

[Map 3]

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

— ^plate, blankets, linen, boots and bicycles were load-
ed on to motor-lorries and carried off. A woman was
violated in the presence of her husband and children
— the husband was terrorised by the assailants' arms.

At Jouy-sur-Morin^^ two Germans came into a
house carrying looted bottles of champagne, and vio-
lated a girl of eighteen — the mother was kept off with
the bayonet by each soldier in turn; the father was
away.

The chateau of La Masure^'^ in the commune of la
Ferte'Gaucher^ was visited by four Germans— one of
them an officer — on Sept. 6th. There were
three civilians on the premises — the owner, M.
Quenescourt, aged 77; his maid, aged 54; and a
woman of 40, the wife of a refugee, who was
receiving shelter in the chateau, with her twelve-
year-old son. The Germans took refreshment and
went off; but between 7 and 8 in the evening all
four returned. "They seemed the worse for drink,
especially the officer." They began firing through the
gate, and hit one of the watchdogs, which had to be
put out of its misery. When the ^ate was opened to
them they demanded food and lodging. The maid
cooked them food, and then M. Quenescourt advised
both women to conceal their whereabouts for the night.

••One 57.

"'On* 58-9; Bland pp. 93-7; Bryce p. 195 (=:Bland pp. 93-5),

[Map 3]

JOUY, LA MASURE '

They attempted to do so, but the Crermans searched
for them, and found first the refugee and then the
maid. "The officer dragged me up to the attic," states
the former, "tore off all my clothes, and tried, unsuc-
cessfully, to violate me. Meanwhile, one of the sol-
diers robbed me of my purse containing 30 francs. At
this moment M. Quenescourt, wishing to save me, fired
up the staircase with a revolver. He was shot inune-
diately, and the officer then made me leave the attic
and compelled me to step over M. Quenescourt's body."
Finally the officer handed over his victim to his three
companions. They threw her on to the murdered
man's bed and violated her there, while the officer went
to look for the maid. "He brought me," states the
latter, "to see the body of my master. It was lying
on the stairSy with one wound in the head and several
others in the chest. . . . The officer then made me
strip completely naked and violated me; he ordered
me to make him coflFee; he forced me to lie with him
all night, keeping his rifle within reach, and gripping
me tight all the time to prevent me from getting
away." In the morning the women had to prepare
coffee and chocolate for the four Germans. The offi-
cer dragged in two male civilians, and stripped the
younger woman naked in their presence. "He aimed
his revolver at us several times, and looked about for

[Map 3]

The CROs&tNO OP the marne

petroleum to fire the chateau aiid the farm. They all
went oflF that morning about 8 o'clock. . . ."

In the town of La Ferte-Gaucher^^ the Grermans
broke into a house and violated a woman in the pres-
ence of her four-year-old child. Pressing on from the
Grand Morin to the Aubetin they entered Maupert*
hui^^ on Sept. 6th, seized a civilian from his house,
and shot him at the other end of the street, as well as
one of the hostages dragged hither from Vareddes.^
They also seized and shot two caretakers in a neigh-
bouring farm. In another farm, near Amillis^ they
violated a woman, attacking her with bayonets drawn
and revolver in hand. At Beton-Bazoches ^ they vio-
lated a woman whose husband was with the colours,
with her child three years old in the room. At Cour-
tacon^ on Sept. 6th, they burned a number of houses,
sprinkling them first with petrol and with one of the
specially prepared inflammable liquids which they car-
ried with them for this purpose. "Inhabitants," states
the Mayor, "were compelled to provide matches and
faggots." The troops who did this belonged to the
Prussian Guard. Their next act was to drag the

•• Five 6a

"One 37-43.
*See p. 33 above.
•Five 59.
•One 33.
*One 27-9.

[Map 3]
58

MAUPERTHUIS, COURT ACON, SANCT

Mayor, four men of the commune, and a boy of thir-
teen to the firing-line, and use them as a screen. These
five escaped with their lives, but the Grermans led up
a boy belonging to the conscript class of 1914, and
asked the Mayor whether he were a soldier. "I told
them," states the Mayor, "that he had been passed for
military service, but that his class had not yet been
called up. They stripped off his trousers to see if he
were sound; then they let him dress again, and shot
him fifty yards from where we were. I saw him fall."
The boy was buried by his mother next day. At Sancy-
leS'Provins^ on Sept. 6th, a woman whose husband
was with the colours and who was alone in her house
with four children, was violated by a German cyclist
quartered on her for the night. That evening the Grer-
mans collected about eighty inhabitants of Sancy in a
sheep-fold, and next morning early, when they evac-
uated the village, they carried thirty of them, includ-
ing the cure, away. They took them to a bam, where
a Grerman Red Cross ambulance was stationed. "A
German surgeon-major," states the cure, "said some-
thing to the" (German) "wounded, and these at once
loaded four rifles and two. revolvers. I saw that they
were going to execute us. A French hussar, wounded
and a prisoner, said to me : 'M. le cure, come and give

.WWB^^IW"

'One sa^

[Maps]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

me absolution ; I am going to be shot, and then it will
be your turn.' I fulfilled his wish, and then, unbut-
toning my cassock, went and stood against the wall
between the Mayor and another of my parishioners.
But at that moment two French mounted chasseurs
arrived and saved our lives, for the Germans surren-
dered to them immediately. The hussar and all my
companions made off, and we returned to the village
without any further incident." It was the turn of the
tide. Von Kluck's Army was in retreat.

(v) From Liege to the Sambre.

While von Kluck passed westward out of Brabant
to the Scheldt, von Biilow, on his left, wheeled south-
ward to the Sambre, and made his way to the Mame
by more easterly routes.

Leaving Brabant behind them and skirting the forts
of Namur, von Billow's Army traversed Gembloux on
their way into Hainaut. In the market-place of Gem-
bloux a Belgian despatch-rider® saw the body of a
woman pinned to the door of a house by a sword
driven through her chest. The body was naked and
the breasts had been cut off. In Hainaut^ von Billow's
right flank spread out westwards, to keep touch with
von Kluck's left in the direction of Mons. At Pe-

•ks.

[Frontispiece]

PERONNES, FAUROEULX, HAULCHIN

ronnes '' they burned 63 houses and shot 8 civilians,
including the Burgomaster. **They shot the Burgo-
master and his servant," states a Belgian witness,® "in
front of the Hotel-de-Ville. They bandaged the Bur-
gomaster's eyes with his tricolour scarf of office. The
relations of the dead men were ordered not to touch
the bodies, which were left in the street forty-eight
hours. . . . Three or four days before the Germans
arrived, the Burgomaster had informed the civilian
population, by means of circulars distributed to each
house and placards, that all guns and firearms must be
deposited at the H6tel-de-Ville, and this was done."
At Faurceulx^ on Aug. 24th, the Germans sacked the
conununal building, the school, and the schoolmaster's
house. For the six ensuing days they made requisi-
tions without vouchers or payment in cash. Then, on
Aug. 30th, they drove all the inhabitants out. The
latter, when at the end of a fortnight they were al-
lowed to return, found that 98 out of 104 houses in
their village had been pillaged. The same method of
pillage after expulsion was applied to ten other neigh-
bouring villages — ^notably Haulchin^ Bienne^les-Hap^
part^ Peissant^ Merbes-le-Chdteau^ and Sars^a-Buiss-
iere — all situated in the obtuse-angle between the

^xxi p. 136.

•b 16.

•xxii pp. 142-3.

[Map 2]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

French frontier and the Sambre. The Germans admit
(by excusing) their conduct in the statement^® that
at Peissant they found the doors and shutters of the
houses barred and loopholed — as doubtless they did,
for the British troops had been before them in this dis-
trict and had made preparations for defence.

The French, too, on von Billow's main front, de-
fended the line of the Sambre, and the civilian inhabi-
tants of the towns and villages along the river were
treated atrociously by von Billow's troops in revenge
for the military resistance they encountered.

At Monceau-sur-Sambre^^ on Aug. 22nd, the first
Uhlans suffered casualties from French pickets on the
outskirts of the town, and when they approached the
river they were caught by French machine-gun fire
from the bridge at Marchienne. "They proceeded,"
states an inhabitant of Monceau, whom they had taken
prisoner, "to fire into the windows of the houses and
break open the doors with their rifle-butts or with the
axes which certain German infantrymen carry for this
special purpose. . . . Shrieking like savages, they en-
tered the houses and dragged out the inhabitants, mak-
ing prisoners of men, women, and children alike. They
then set fire to all the houses in the Rue de Trazegnies."

^ German White Book, Appendix 52.

"b 17; xxii p. 14a; Ann. 5; R pp. 129-132; German White Book,
Appendix 46.

[Maps 1, 2]
62

MONCEA V— MURDERS

The arson was effected by the usual method — a second
squad of soldiers threw in bombs, hand-grenades, pe-
trol or naphtha after the first squad had broken in the
windows and doors. Two hundred and fifty-one houses
altogether were burnt down or gutted by the fire;
sixty-two others were pillaged. On a rough valuation,
it is estimated that 1,500,000 francs' worth of real
property was destroyed and personal property to the
value of 500,000 francs, not reckoning in what the
German pillagers carried away. The slaughter was in
proportion to the destruction. Twenty-eight of the
inhabitants were massacred as they came out of :heir
houses; thirty received wounds from which they sub-
sequently died; twelve were executed in cold blood.
By Nov. 4th, 1916, seventy inhabitants of Monceau
had died at the hands of the Germans altogether. The
circumstances of the massacre were atrocious. An
old man of seventy-seven was killed as he was leaving
his burning house. Entire families were killed — in one
case ^* a father, a mother, and a boy eight years old.
"The woman was shot point-blank in the courtyard
of her house. The father, holding the child by the
hand, took refuge in the garden ; they were discovered
by a German soldier and were both shot dead." In
another household ^^ they shot a boy of eighteen in the

"xxii p. 142.
«»bi8.

(Maps I, 2]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

garden, carried off the other son and the father to the
Chateau Baslieu, and shot them there, with other civil-
ian prisoners, against a wall. "They shot the son first;
then they compelled the father to stand close to his
son's feet and to fix his eyes upon him, and shot him
in that position." The boy shot in the garden had
been carried into the house by the neighbours, at his
mother's entreaty, and laid on a bed. Next morning
the Germans asked what had happened to the corpse,
and, hearing, piled straw round the bed and set it on
fire — the whole house was burnt down.

"At Monceau," as a German diarist;^* describes it,
"when our work was done, we assembled outside the
town, where the whole population had been gathered
together for sentence, and all those who were found
with weapons in their possession (^sic) were shot."
The remainder, including the Burgomaster, and num-
bering several hundred altogether, were driven before
the Germans as a screen in their advance across the
Sambre. "The soldiers," states one of these prison-
ers,^^ "struck us with their rifle-butts and bayonets.
The Uhlans rode us down and struck us with their
lances. I saw one man whose whole body was slashed
by stabs from the lance. We were driven up the Rue
de Trazegnies in the middle of the flames. The houses

Ann. 5.

Reply p. 131; vii p. 53.

[Maps I, 2]

MARCHIENNE-AU-PONT, MONTIGNY

on either side of the street were burning." At the first
halting place five of the prisoners were singled out and
shot. "We heard the report^, and the firing-party re-
turned to continue their meal. Others were playing
gramophones and accordions taken from the pillaged
houses. . . . We were then placed in ranks of four,
followed by eight soldiers with loaded rifles. We were
warned that if a single shot were fired, by civilians or
soldiers, we should all be shot.

"When we were approaching the railway station at
Marchienne-au'Font^^ the soldiers saw several civil-
ians in the street and fired at them, happily without re-
sult. We continued on our way in the middle of the
flames; from time to time we had to turn aside to
avoid the corpses of civilians and horses lying in the
streets." Twenty-four civilians were massacred at
Marchienne; one of them was an old woman of sev-
enty-four, and another a girl of seventeen, who had
cried "Vive TAngleterre," mistaking the Germans for
British troops. This girl's body was seen two days
later lying in a field. "It was quite naked, and the
breast was cut and covered with blood."

"At last," continues the witness, "we arrived at
Montigny'le-Tzlleul^^'^ where we were shut up for the
night in a small barn. About fifty people from Mon-

""b 22; xxii p. 139.
"^xxii p. 139.

[Maps I, 2]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

tigny — ^young men, old men, women, and babies in
arms — were crowded in there as well. We were so
crowded that we could not move. The heat w^ in-
tolerable."

Five more of the prisoners from Monceau were shot
that night, and two inhabitants of Montigny were shot
as well. But next morning the prisoners from Mon-
tigny were released, and only those from Monceau
were driven on — against the French positions at Go-
zee, which the Germans were marching to attack. "All
the big farms in the district of Gozee and Thuillies
were pillaged, and the fine horses carried away."

Meanwhile, further east, other columns of von Bil-
low's were marching on Charleroi. At Gosselies^^
they seized thirty civilians and drove them forward to
Jumet}^ "The Germans entered Jumet," states a wit-
ness, "on Aug. 22nd. I saw them driving before them,
to a place where French troops were entrenched, about
lOO Belgian civilians, including some persons I knew.
There were several women among them, and I noticed
one child. The French fired on them, but none were
killed. The civilians were kept in line in front of the
Germans by cavalry on either side of them. When
the French began to fire, the Germans fired on the civil-
ians who were at hand and killed several. I was fired

"xxii p. 137.

^b 19; xxii pp. 138-9, 140.

[Maps I, 2]

JUMET, LODELINSART

on, but not hit. The Germans fired into the houses
on either side of the road." Ten civilians were killed
at Jumet. "At a house close to mine," continues the
witness, "the Germans banged on the door, and when
my neighbour opened it to them he was shot in the
face and killed"; but the worst violences were com-
mitted against women. One woman was driven along
with blows from rifle-butts and added, with other
women and children from Jumet, to the screen. An-
other, biding in her cellar, was wounded by eight bul-
lets and died in hospital. Another, hiding in an oven,
was wounded, and died the following day. Another
woman was wounded in the nose, another in the back,
another in the knee, another in the face. Six women
testified to having been shot at and wounded by the
Germans without provocation. In one house at Ju-
met, on the Brussels road, five women were living —
the youngest sixteen, the eldest sixty-eight. "The
Germans put us in a field," they state, "where they
bound us to five men. They told us that we should
be shot. We remained there about twenty minutes.
During this time the soldiers kept levelling their rifles
at us and threatening us with their bayonets."

Advancing from Jumet to Lodelinsari^^^ the Ger-
mans were received by French machine-gun fire and

■•xxii pp. 137, 140.

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

ran amok. At Lodelinsart twenty-four civilians were
killed. "I saw there/' states the last witness, "the
dead bodies of two young men. They had been shot.
The neighbours told me that these two young men
and their father had been bound together by the Ger-
mans, and that, after the two sons had been shot, one
of the father's hands was cut oflf. He was taken to the
civil hospital at Charleroi." — "At Jumet and Lodelin-
sart," another witness states,^* "I saw two German
stretcher-bearers, who appeared to be drunk, leave their
stretcher and go and set fire to the houses."

In Charleroi itself ^^ 160 houses were burnt, in the
finest streets of the town. The incendiarism was car-
ried out systematically, imder officers' command. Here,
too, civilians were driven as a screen before the Ger-
man troops. There were two doctors ^^ among them,
wearing Red Cross badges on their arms. An old man,
over sixty, tried to reach his house. "The Germans
seized him by the legs, dragged him back into the
street, and shot him dead with rifles." — "While I was
in the streets," states another witness, "a number of
German cavalrymen came into the town. At the time
there were a large number of civilians in the streets.

"xxii p. 140.

"b 21, 24-5; Reply pp. 120-1: xxii p. 141; German White Book,
Appendix 63 (uncorroborated by other evidence).
"Mentioned by name.

[Map i]

CHARLEROL MARCINELLE, COUILLET

The Germans, without any warning, shot at the civil-
ians, and I saw four men shot dead." — "I had hidden
in a cellar with some of my friends," states a third.
"The Germans found us and fired in. I was not
wounded myself, but one of my companions fell dead
on my arm. . . . They tied our hands behind our
backs. . . . We were obliged to bury the dead. . . .
As we were going away they shot at us and killed a
man from Alost.

"The next day," the same witness continues, "I saw
the Geraians putting straw into the cellars of houses
which had been burnt the day before, but in the cel-
lars of which there were still living people, and set-
ting the straw on fire. I was in the street when they
were doing it. There were hundreds of Germans.
There were officers ordering them to do this. I after-
wards saw the cellars full of dead bodies." Forty
civilians in all at Charleroi were shot, burnt, or suffo-
cated to death.

At Marcinelle^^^ on Aug. 25th, a party of Uhlans
were seen driving a body of fifty or sixty civilians
before them. One old man, exhausted, was forced
along by blows. At Couillet ^^ four civilians over sixty
years old were killed, and eighteen altogether. On
Aug. 25th, the day the Germans entered Couillet, a

**XV p. 21.

*b 23; xxii p. 138.

[Map i]

PROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

young man returning home in the evening found his
father, his mother, and his nephew (a child) lying
dead in the house. "My father's body had eight bul-
let wounds in it, of which three were in the head and
five in the body. My mother's body had five bullet
wounds in it, one in the temple, one in the back of the
skull, and three in the back. My nephew had been
killed by a bayonet or sword — ^there were four wounds
in the head and one in the stomach. There were
twenty-seven bottles lying in the room, all of which
were empty except one. These bottles had contained
red wine." The father had been killed by eight Ger-
man artillery officers because he had no bread in the
house. They had killed the mother after she had
brought them the wine. A few minutes later other
Germans broke into the house, carried off the young
man to Charleroi, and sent him with fifty other Bel-
gian civilians in cattle-trucks to Aix-la-Chapelle. Here,
after twelve days, a Bavarian soldier helped him to
escape. When he returned to Couillet he found that
his house had been burnt.

Other German troops advanced through Boignee^^^
where they shot a woman in a field, and Piron-
champs^'^ where they murdered four civilians, includ-
ing a man of sixty and a girl of fifteen. At Gilly ^®

xxii p. 139.
"xxii p. 137.

[Map i]

GILLY, MONTIGNY'SUR'SAMBRE

they murdered six civilians. Two women were thrown
into a cistern, and a baker's wife had her jaw shat-
tered by a bullet as she was standing in her shop.
Twenty-three civilians were killed at Farciennes/^ on
the Sambre. Three of them were over sixty years old,
three were children— one five months old and in its
mother's arms. At Chdtelet ^^ a proclamation, si^ed
by Baron von Maltzahn, Commandant, ordered every
inhabitant having in his house a French or Belgian
soldier, wounded or not, to notify the same at the
H6tel-de-Ville, on penalty of being hanged himself
and having his house burnt down.

The Germans marched into Montigny-sur'Sambre
on Aug. 22nd. "First," states a Belgian witness,^^
"came the cyclists, about twenty; then about fifty in-
fantry; then a good hundred Belgian hostages col-
lected from the neighbouring villages, two or three of
whom I knew personally — one F., a priest, and an-
other priest whose name I do not know; then more
cyclists, then more infantry. Then followed nearly
three hundred hostages, generally five in a row, though
sometimes only four. There was a large new rope
round them, and the front, rear, and outside men had

"xxii pp. 138, 139.

xxii p. 14a
-b 18.

[Map i]
71

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

to hold it in their hands. They were escorted by sol-
diers with fixed bayonets.

"A detachment halted in the street and put down
their arms. The Belgians gave them everything they
wanted — food, cigars, soap, towels, I think — ^so that
they might have no harm done to them or their houses
and shops. • . ."

At this moment the French troops holding the cross-
ing of the river opened fire on the Germans with two
machine-guns posted outside the town. "The instant
the French fired," continues the Belgian witness, "the
Germans set fire to houses all along the main street
— ^I believe the total number was 131. They chased
all the inhabitants out, saying that there were French
soldiers there. There were no soldiers there, and they
did not find a single one. . . .

"All these houses were totally destroyed. The
street opens out into a circular place. There they
burned every house except three, one of the inhabitants
of which spoke German and asked them not to. They
each carried a little bag containing pellets of an ex-
plosive nature.^ ^ They were a regular corps of in-
cendiaries, and each of them had the word 'Gibraltar'
on the left arm of his tunic. There were others who
set fire to houses with petrol, but the regular incendi-*

The witness handed two samples of these to the Bryce Committee.

[Map i]

7«

MONTIGNY-SUR-SAMBRE

aries used these explosive pellets. They were thrown
in in handfuls and made the fire burn very fiercely.

"About 10.30 p.m. about 200 hostages passed. At
about the same time they put about fifty men, women,
and children on the bridge over the Sambre,. and kept
them there till 5 a.m. The 200 hostages I saw at 10.30
were from Montigny itself. . • .

"On Saturday night (Aug. 22nd) many of the Ger-
mans were drunk. They pillaged all the shops. The
whole town was full of them. ... A school prepared
for Red Cross work, with beds all ready but not yet
occupied by wounded, was burnt. It was a large build-
ing belonging to the Christian Brothers. Four of the
latter were among the hostages I saw at 10.30 p.m.,
and were very badly treated. An officer, on inquiring
what that large building was which was on fire, and
learning that it was the Christian Brothers' temporary
hospital, said : That is stupid.' ^^ They marched the
Christian Brothers to Somzee, more than 20 kilometres
away. They beat them and tore their clothes."

The witness himself was seized as a hostage early
on the morning of Aug. 23rd. "They charged me
with not keeping the population in order, and said I
was responsible for civilians firing on the soldiers. I
replied that I had told everyone not to fire on the sol-

"* Another officer sent a soldier to save a priest's house from burn-
ing, when appealed to by the priest's niece, who spoke German.

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

diers, and that I was sure that they had not done so.
I explained th^ it was the French who had fired, and
pointed out the position of their machine-guns. An
officer said: 'It was the Garde Civique.' They had
been disbanded on the Friday night, but I had not
time to tell him so. All their rifles were in the Hotel-
de-Ville. The Germans themselves had found them
there and destroyed them, and set the H6tel-de-Ville
on fire. The officer said he would destroy the whole
town with big guns.

"It was about an hour later when they took three
men from among the hostages and shot them. It was
said that these three had been found hidden in a cel-
lar, and that there had been a revolver found in a
chest of drawers on the first floor. There was no trial
of any sort. . . . When they shot them, they told
them to march forward, and then said : 'Halt ! Right
about turn!' and shot them the moment they turned.
Next day they put up a notice that all persons found
with arms would be shot and their houses burnt."

After these executions, the witness and the rest of
the hostages were marched about the countryside all
day. As they started, they were harangued by the
German officer in command: "If we are fired at in
the villages we are going through, you will all be shot.
If we are not fired at, you will be set at liberty to-
morrow." At their evening halt one of the hostages,

[Map i]

MONTIGNY'SUR-SAMPRE, BOUFFJOULX

a feeble-minded boy, tried to escape. He was shot
in the thigh, and left to bleed to death. "The officer
came up upon hearing the shots. He repeatedly struck
the five men who were nearest the one who had tried
to escape, with clenched fists, and banged their heads
against the wall behind. Then he ordered the soldiers
to shoot them. They led them away a little distance
and I heard the shots. He was in such a rage he could
hardly speak."

Next morning the witness was released, and re-
turned to Montigny with a pass. "I visited the hos-
pital," l\e states, "and saw twenty-seven lying dead.
. . . Several of them had been killed in the presence
of their wives."

At Bouffioulx^^^ on Aug. 22nd, ten civilians were
killed — three of them being over sixty years of age.
"I saw a man lying dead in the street," states a witr
ness, "shot through the chest about fifty yards from
his house. He was an old man of sixty-five, in his
ordinary clothes. His brother-in-law told me, next
day, that he had been dragged out of his house when
he was alone there with his wife. . . • In Bouffioulx
about one-third of the houses were burned down, and
they tried to burn many others. I met one of my work-
men sitting on his doorstep crying because they had

"b 20; x^ii p. i%%.

[Map 1]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

burnt everything of his. I saw a friend dead in his
house in the Chaussee d'Acoz. He had been shot in
the chest, and his throat was cut." At Les Tiennes the
same witness saw twenty-five cottages burning. He
saw two men shot by the Germans as they tried to get
out of a cellar, through the grating, to escape from
the flames. In a hospital he saw a man and his wife
— the man had been shot in the chest while getting
out of his cellar; the woman could not get out, and
was found there afterwards, terribly burnt. She died
in hospital of her injuries.

Acoz ^* was evacuated by its inhabitants, at the re-
quest of the French Command, as soon as the Germans
crossed the Sambre. "I met only very few people,"
states Lieutenant Huck, one of the German witnesses,
who entered Acoz on Aug. 24th; "they were remark-
ably friendly, and offered me milk, and even water to
wash with." In the H6tel-de-Ville the Germans found
the rifles and cartridges — each packet of cartridges
ticketed with the owner's name — which had been de-
posited here, as in most other Belgian communes, at
the Burgomaster's request. Shots, however, were fired
at the Germans from the deserted houses (doubtless
by a French patrol), whereupon the Germans broke
down the doors, shot the only three inhabitants they

^Mercier; Reply pp. 108-9; German White Book, App. 43.

[Map i]

GOUGNIES, CANTON OF WALCOURT

found in the village, including the cure, who was
nearly seventy years old, and set the village on fire.
The Communal building, the post-office, a convent,
and a school were among the houses burnt.

At Gougnies^^ on Aug. 23rd, the Germans burned
twenty-seven houses, including one which the owner
had converted into a Red Cross hospital. Ten wound-
ed French soldiers were burnt to death in this house,
and the owner, an old man, was shot next day. Two
other civilians were shot at Gougnies, one of them be-
ing eighty-three years old.

At Hansinne^ in the Canton of Walcourt^ 39 houses
were burnt, at Hansinelle 73, at Somzee 34. "At Som-
zee," states a witness in the German White Book,^
"a number of civilians were shot" — ^because a German
transport column was fired at by persons unascertained.
In the Canton of Walcourt, 260 houses were burnt al-
together.

Von Billow's left flank columns crossed the Sambre
close under the western forts of Namur. At Jemeppe
they burned 21 houses; at Ham^ 44; at Auvelais they
burned 123, and killed about ^^ of the inhabitants.
Above Auvelais, they crossed the Sambre at Tamines^'^
on Aug. 21st.

"Reply p. 122; German White Book App. 33.
^App. 34.

"^b i4.-i5» 20; X p. 70; xi pp. 84-7; xxi pp. 119^123; Ann. 9; Morgan
p. 97. [Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

At Tamines, again, the French disputed the Grer-
mans' passage. There was an artillery duel, and
French rifle fire swept the approaches to the bridge.
The Germans collected the inhabitants of Tamines and
lined them up as a screen. "We were about 800 per-
sons," states one witness,*® "including women and chil-
dren. They put us into a meadow on the road to Ve-
laines. The French ceased ifiring when they saw us.
Then the German army defiled past us." — "I was
seized with my father and brother," states another
witness,*® "in the cellar where I had taken refuge.
There were about sixty of us, all men. The Germans
put us in front of them as a shield. The French there-
upon ceased firing. They allowed the Grermans to
cross the bridge and mass themselves in close forma-
tion, still preceded by us. About 5 o'clock the French
opened fire with machine-guns. We threw ourselves
on the groimd ; some ten of us were killed or wounded ;
the French did all they could to spare us." A third
witness *^ watched the scene from a house on the fur-
ther side. As soon as they were across, the people in
the screen tried to save themselves by turning into the
first houses beyond the bridge; the Germans fired on
them, and several ran mortally wounded into the house

"xxi

120.

XXI

122.

^xp.

. 7a

[Map i]
78

TAMINES— WOMEN AND CHILDREN

in which the witness was standing, where they died.

''During the battle/' states the last witness but one,
"the Germans set fire to all the houses in the Rue de
la Station, the Place Saint-Martin, and the Rue de
Falisolle. They did not look to see if there were peo-
ple in the houses." Two hundred and seventy-six
houses were burnt down in Tamines from first to last.
Meanwhile, the survivors of the screen, their function
accomplished, were* marched back and locked up for
the night in the church of les AUoux. "The children
were crying and screaming. . . . Everybody was beg'
ging for mercy." **

The pillage and incendiarism continued through the
night. One household,*^ where the family had taken
refuge in the cellar since 5 p.m. on Aug. 21st, was
roused at 3 a.m. on the 22nd by German soldiers beat-
ing on the door. "They came in with their revolvers
in their hands, saying : * You see the fire all round you.
Get out of this ; it is all to be burnt.' They then began
to break everything, and to set fire to the house by
means of little syringes. They broke the pumps to
prevent us from extinguishing the flames. They drove
us out with the butt-ends of their rifles. . . . Together
with the children, we climbed a twelve-foot wall and
found Ourselves in a garden. German soldiers fired

**ZXi p. I20.

^xxi p. 131.

[M«p i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

at us from the road adjoining the garden. My brother-
in-law had two bullets in his left arm. At the screams
of the children (there were six of them — four very
young) the firing ceased. . . ."

The last act at Tamines was reserved for that after-
noon. "About 4.30," continues the witness, "the Ger-
man troops arrived at the Place Saint-Martin in large
numbers. Some soldiers saw us. We came out, and
they took us to a superior officer.* He drew his re-
volver, aimed it at the men of the family, and told
the soldiers that we must all be shot. We knelt down
and begged for mercy for the children. The soldiers
then took us to the station, where another officer said :
'They must all be shot.' They set us against the wall
and the soldiers pointed their guns at us. My sister-
in-law went in search of the officer. The children
cried: 'Have mercy upon us.' Then the officer called
out : 'Halt !' He was quite a young man. He sent us
to the church of les AUoux, where there were already
2,000 persons. The soldier said : 'You have been firing
on us ; you will all be shot.' "

What happened to the men is told by one of their
number.*^ "The Germans forced the inhabitants
(women and children as well as men) to leave their
houses and go to the church.** While we went out by

** Morgan p. 97.

^Of Saint-Martin, adjoining the Place.

[Map i]

TAMINES—THE MEN

the front door the Germans entered by the back and
set our houses <m fire, so that in a very short time the
whole commune was one vast furnace. When the
whole population was assembled at the church, the
women and children were sent oflF towards the nunnery,
while the men — 400 of us — ^were forced to march in
ranks of four towards the open, between a double line
of German soldiers. While we were marching the
Germans kept on firing at us, and in this way piti-
lessly massacred a considerable number of my fellow-
citizens. Seeing that numbers of my comrades were
being struck down by the shots, I fell to the ground
myself, thou^ I was not wounded, and remained ly-
ing there among the corpses, without moving, till about
midnight. That was how I saved my life."

This witness was more fortunate than most. At
the first salvo ^^ nearly all the 400 had fallen, whethei
wounded or not; others had thrown themselves into*
the Sambre. The latter were drowned or Were shot
by the Grermans in the water. Those lying unwounded
on the ground got up upon a German word of com-
mand, and were mown down immediately by a second
hail of bullets — this time, it is said, from a machine-
gun. Even then only about half the 400 were dead;
the rest lay wounded on the ground, and the Germans

* Reply p. 144.

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

went round the square, "finishing off" any who showed
signs of life by bayonet thrusts or blows from the
butts of their rifles. By the light of lanterns they car-
ried on the slaughter far into the night. Many of the
slaughterers wore Red Cross badges on their arms. The
witness last quoted found afterwards that only thirty
of the 400 had survived, and of these only four were
unwounded besides himself.

This witness was requisitioned next day for burying
the dead. "On reaching the square," states another
Belgian witness *® requisitioned for the same task, '^the
first thing we saw was the bodies of civilians in a mass,
covering a space of at least forty yards by six. They
had evidently been drawn up in rank to be shot. . . .
Actually fathers buried the bodies of their sons, and
sons the bodies of their fathers. The women of the
town had been marched out into the square, and saw
us at work. All around were the burnt houses. In
the square there were Germans — ^both officers and sol-
diers. They were drinking champagne. The more
the evening drew on, the more they drank. . . . We
buried from 350 to 400 bodies. . . . Then four
mounted officers came into the square, and, after a long
consultation, we were made to form into marching
order, with our wives and children as well. We were

**xi pp. 85-6.

[Map i]

TAMINES—THE DEAD

taken through Tamines amid the debris which obstruct-
ed the streets, and led to Velaines between two ranks
of soldiers. We all thought that we were going to
be shot in the presence of our wives and children. I
saw German soldiers who could not refrain from burst-
ing into tears on seeing the women's despair. . . ."

During the burial terrible incidents occurred. The
last witness saw a German doctor order a man who
was still alive to be buried with the rest. "The plank
on which he was lying was borne on again, and I saw
the man raise his arm elbow-high. They called to the
doctor again, but he signified by a gesture that he was
to go into the grave with the others."

Most terrible of all were the scenes of recognition.

"I saw M. X carrying off the body of his own

son-in-law. He was able to take away his watch, but
was not allowed to remove some papers which were
on him." — "A friend," states another witness,*'^ "told
me gently what had happened. I went to the public
square and saw it littered with corpses in all kinds of
positions. I did not see the bodies of my wife and
child then. ... I saw them for the first time when
the dead were being buried that afternoon. My wife's
body had a stab in the head, and also one in the breast,
on the left side. My little girl had a stab in the neck.

[Map x]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

I saw also the body of the cure of the Church of les
Alloux. His ears and one arm were cut and nearly
severed from the body. Among those who had been
shot down the day before was my nephew, sixteen
years of age." — "On Aug. 24th," states one of the wit-
nesses quoted above,*® who had been confined in the
Church of les Alloux, "we went to the Place Saint-
Martin, where we saw traces of blood. My sister-in-
law recognised her husband's cap. We walked along
the Sambre, and saw corpses on the banks and in the
water. Of these last, forty-seven were taken out of
the river — ^my husband among them. At the begin-
ning of September, when the communal authorities
were permitted to exhume the bodies and bury them
in the old cemetery round the church, we learnt that
my father-in-law and brother-in-law were among those
shot, and my husband among those who had been
drowned."

In addition to the great massacre, the Germans also
committed isolated murders at Tamines. A witness
whose shop looked on to the square,*® saw them shoot
a boy of fifteen, a ^rl of fifteen, and her two little
brothers of twelve and eight. They also shot, in her
sight, an old man of seventy whom they had requisi-
tioned to help them pick up their own wounded.

**xxi pp. i2i-a.

"bi4.

[Map i]

FALISOLLE, ARSIMONT, FOSSE

Three hundred and thirty-six of the Belgian civilians
killed by the Germans at Tamines are known by name.
The total number of the victims runs to at least a
hundred more.

The German column which had crossed the Sambre
at Tamines went forward towards the south. At Fali-
solle they burned 31 houses; at Arsimont^ 163; at
Fosse^ 70. "Advanced with my section into the village
of Fosse," writes a German officer in his diary.*^^
"Some shots were fired from a farm, so it was burnt,
and Mey with it. . . . When the battalion entered
the village there was a hail of bullets, so we burned
the whole village, and the Seventh Company got 2,000
francs." On the road from Fosse to Vitrival, a fugi-
tive Belgian soldier ^^ saw a party of civilian refugees
— ten women and several children — overtaken by
twenty-four Germans. "A soldier approached one of
the women, intending to violate her, and she pushed
him away. He at once struck the woman in the breast
with his bayonet. I saw her fall. Some of the men's
comrades laughed as he showed them the bayonet drip-
ping with blood. He then wiped the bayonet on his
coat. I am certain that the whole of the twenty-four
soldiers had been drinking."

"* Bland p. i6a
"bs.

[Map i]

FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

At Roselies^^ the Germans killed the cure. At
Biesmes ^^ they killed eight civilians and bumed sev-
enty-two houses. At Oret they burned seventy-three
houses. At St. Gerard they bumed fifty-four houses.
At Ermetonsur-Biert they bumed eighty-six houses
and killed six civilians. "In front of the village of
Ermeton," writes a German diarist on August 24th,^*
"w€ made 1,000 prisoners; at least 500 were shot.
The village was burnt because there had been shooting
by the inhabitants too. Two civilians were shot at
once. While searching a house for beds we stuffed
ourselves to our heart's content. Bread, wine, butter,
jelly, and all sorts of other things were our booty.
We washed off the blood, and cleaned our side-arms.
. . . That night we found our best quarters yet —
plenty of clean linen, preserved things, wine, salt meat,
and cigars. . . ."

This was how von Biilow's Army made its passage
of the Sambre. The whole tract along the river, from
the forts of Namur on the left flank to the forts of
Maubeuge on the right, was visited with slaughter and
devastation. A thousand and eleven houses were burnt
in the Canton of Fosse, and 769 in twenty communes ^^

" Mercier.

"German White Book, App. 34.

"Bryce pp. 177-8.

"xxii pp. 140- 1.

[Map i]

ARRONDISSEMENT CHARLEROI

of the Province of Hainaut, Arrondissement Charleroi.
In these twenty communes — which include neither
Charleroi itself nor Montigny-sur-Sambre nor Tamines
(which lies just within the Province of Namur) —
2,221 more houses were partially burnt and pillaged;
no men, 9 women, and 8 children were killed; 34
men, 12 women, and 3 children were wounded; more
than 300 men, 250 women, 249 children, and 63 en-
tire families disappeared. The value of the houses
burnt was 4,795,937 francs; of the houses partially
burnt or pillaged, 1,911,799 francs; pf the goods and
crops destroyed or stolen, 2,914,014 francs; of the fur-
niture destroyed 2,850,529 francs; amounting to
nearly 12,500,000 francs in all — and it is reckoned
that the destruction in the remaining communes of
the Arrondissement of Charleroi amounted to twice
as much again. To this must be added the official
requisitions of von Billow's Army and the war contri-
bution imposed upon the city of Charleroi and its urban
area, which was fixed at 10,000,000 francs.

(vi) From the Sambre to the Marne.

Maubeuge, the French fortress on the Sambre, held
out till Sept. 7 th, but von Biilow swept past it to-
wards the Marne.

On Aug. 26th a Belgian civilian prisoner*^* saw

[Map 2]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

other civilians shot near Mauheuge^ in a field. "Those
who were shot were those who were running in front
of the Grermans and stopped a little. Those who did
not stop were not shot."

The diaries of German soldiers show von Billow's
columns pouring southward over France.

"Aug. 19th," writes one,^^ "could not find the regi-
ment; remained with ammunition column. Then,
when we halted, plundered a villa, had much wine.

"Aug. 22nd, bivouack near Anderlues. Marauded
terribly, fed magnificently.

"Aug. 26th, went into bivouack about 6 p.m. As
always, the surrounding houses were plundered imme-
diately. Found four rabbits,' roasted them, dined mag-
nificently. Plates, cups, knives and forks, glasses, etc.
Eleven bottles of champagne, four of wine, and six
of liqueur were drunk.

"Aug. 27th, marched off at 6.30. All still supplied
with bottles of wine and champagne.

"Aug. 28th, St. Quentin. Had to bivouack in the
market-place. Cleared out the houses, dragged out
beds into market-place, and slept on them."

A second diarist^® takes up the tale: "Aug. 23rd,
march through the big town of 'Zur-Sell.' " {Cour^

"Bryce p. 176.
"Bryce p. 174.

[Maps 2, 3]
88

COURCELLESs NOYON, SOISSONS

celleSj north:west of Charleroi, between Gosselies and
Anderlues.) "The people stand in the street, and give
us whatever they have. . . .

"Aug. 30th, march through the garrison town of
Noyon and are shot at from the houses. A main bridge
is blown up just before we can get over it; we are
under fire from all the houses in front of us. Everyone
goes for the houses immediately, and everything is
turned upside-down. We happen to get into a hotel,
and anything that anyone can use is taken along.
Here a steel watch comes into my hands. A bakery
is stormed; all shops are cleaned out. This makes
it a good day for us, for we eat what we like — ^biscuits,
figs, chocolates, preserves, marmalade. An English
officer shot with four men, because he wanted to blow
up a bridge; otherwise everything quiet.

"Sept. 1st, Sots sons. Everything usable taken
along. Wine treated literally like water. . . ."

This was on von Billow's extreme right flank, in
contact with von Kluck. His other columns came
down the other side of Maubeuge, east of the Sambre
and the Oise. Between Landrecies and Guise^ a sol-
dier*^® in the British Army, retreating before von
Billow's advance, "saw a party of women and children
coming along a road. Immediately behind them were

■*« 14.

[Map 3]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

about eight Uhlans, who were pushing the women and
children along in front of them. The latter were
screaming. . . . We worked round the Uhlans* flank,' '
the witness continues, "opened fire, and killed three
of them. The others were driven round to the rear
of our battalion and shot there. We found that the
civilian party consisted of seven or eight women and
five or six very young children. . . ."

Coming on through Laon, the Germans made for the
Aisne. "At Courtecon^^ writes a German in his diary
on Sept. 24th, "the inhabitants of the village are
rounded up and led away. The assistant burgomaster
is shot, because he is in telephonic communication with
the French Army and has thus betrayed our move-

ments."

Crossing the Aisne, the Germans entered Braisne^
on the Vesle. "Two miles from Braisne," states an-
other British soldier,®^ "I saw an old man of about
seventy lying in a garden with his head split open
by a sabre, and a young man on the ground shot dead.
In the next garden I saw another young man, about
twenty, tied to a tree and riddled with shot as if they
had been practising at him. There had been a lot of
destruction there, and the people were starving."

This was what von Billow's troops left behind them

^Bryce p. 191.

[Map 3]

HARTENNES, BEZU ST.-GHRMAIN, CHIERRY

in their retreat; but they penetrated far further than
the Aisne before they were turned back. Following
the road from Soissons on the Aisne to Chateau-Thierry
on the Mame, the Uhlans came to Hartennes-et-
Taux ®* on Sept. 2nd. "They pillaged the whole com-
mune," states the Mayor, "carrying off linen, wine,
and jewellery." — "The inhabitants," it is stated in a
report from the British General Staff, "had all taken
refuge in the cellars of their houses. There were only
three men in the village, the rest of the population
consisting entirely of women and children." A French
cavalry patrol fired on the Uhlans and retired; the
Uhlans searched the village, and finding the three
civilian men in a cellar where they had taken refuge,
heaped straw at the opening of the cellar and suffocated
them to death. "I saw them light the fire," states a
witness, "and heard the men in the cellar coughing.
After about twenty minutes, when the fire had gone
out, I was ordered to go and fetch the bodies. I got
out two, and fell half-suffocated myself." ®^

At Bezu St.'Germain ^^ two Germans violated a girl
of thirteen. At Chiierry *^* they plundered houses and

"One 457-460; Bland pp. 325-6.

"The Germans appear to have thought that the men in the cellar
were the soldiers who had fired on them, but this does not, of course,
excuse their action.

•One 447-8.

"•One 437-9«

[Mapsl
91

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

chateaux. "At the Chateau of Varolles^^ states a gar-
dener's wife, "I saw them feeding the fire with petrol
and using torches to spread the flames. I also saw

•

them looting the cellars. There were officers there."
At the Chateau of Sparre^ "pictures had been taken out
of their frames and carried off, the tapestries in the
dining room had been ripped up with sword-cuts. The
mirrors were broken. The whole cellar had been
sacked." The damage done to these two chateaux
was estimated respectively at 20,ocxD and 110,000
francs.

At Chateau-Thierry ** a band of soldiers broke into
a house at night. First the owner was bound ; his wife
escaped to a neighbour's by the window, but four
soldiers followed her and violated her there in turn.
Two other soldiers violated this lady's niece, aged thir-
teen. "Chateau-Thierry was completely, pillaged,"
states the acting-mayor. "The work was done under
the officers' eyes, and the loot was carried away in
waggons. German prisoners have been found in pos-
session of jewels stolen here, and articles of clothing
obtained from the plunder of the shops have likewise
been found among the effects of German doctors who
remained behind at Chateau-Thierry when their army
left — and this at the moment when these doctors were
being exchanged."

"One 454-6. [Map $]

CHARMEL, JAULGONNE, VARENNES

At Charmel ®^ the Germans, arriving on Sept. 3rd.
pillaged the houses and cellars and burned a chateau.
A woman was violated by a soldier. "He stretched
me on a table," she states, "and gripped me by the
throat." At Jaulgonne^^ on the same date, the Prus-
sian Guard pillaged property worth about 250,000
francs and killed two civilians-^-one eighty-seven, and
the other sixty-one years old. The former was found
lying shot in a field; the second was seen by the Ger-
mans talking to a French soldier (who escaped), and
was seized as a hostage — ^he was killed next morning.
"One of the Germans," states a witness, "gave him a
bayonet stroke in the side. There was a dreadful
rattling in his throat, and they finished him off with
a revolver-shot in the forehead." — "I found two
wounds," states the man who afterwards buried him,
"one in the stomach, through which the intestines
were protruding, and another in the head." On Sept.
3rd the Germans also entered Varennes. "We are
received with a heavy fire," states one of the diarists
quoted above,^*^ who had marched thither from Noyon.
"It has cost the battalion four dead and several
wounded. Corpses are lying about everywhere in the

*One 444-5.
*One 440-2.

"Brycc p. 174.

[Map 3]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

street. — Sept. 6th, the village is set on fire, because
civilians have joined in the shooting/''

Crossing the Mame, von Billow's troops murdered,
at Mezy^MouUns^^^ an old man of seventy-two. At
Crezancy ®® they pillaged a chateau — the damage was
estimated by an expert at 1 23,844 francs. The owner
was not present — fortunately for himself, for a shop-
keeper at Crezancy, who protested against the looting
of his shop, was driven off, blindfolded and stumbling,
but urged on by blows and bayonet thrusts, to Charly,
where he was shot. Another inhabitant of Crezancy
was also taken to Charly and killed. "He had a lance-
thrust or bayonet-thrust near the heart." Another, a
young man of eighteen, was dragged out of a house
and shot on Sept. 3rd, the day the Germans arrived.
After the murder, the German officer inquired whether
the victim were a soldier, and remarked, on learning
that he was not: "Well, he might have become one,
anyway." At Connigis '^^ the Germans murdered a
man and violated a girl in the presence of her mother-
in-law, taking it in turns to keep her father-in-law at
a distance — ^her husband was with the colours.

Passing out of the Department of the Aisne into the
Department of the Marne^ von Billow's Army came to

"Five 65-6.
"One 449-452.
'"One 432-4, 453.

[Map s]
94

BEAUMONT, FONTAINE-ARMEE

Montmirail^ on the Petit Morin. Some of his officers
lodged in the neighbouring Chateau of Beaumont ''^ —
their traces were the words "Excellenz," "Major von
Ledebur," "Graf Waldersee," chalked up on the doors,
and the state in which they left the chdteau. In the
town of Montmirail J^ on the night of Sept. 4th, a non-
commissioned officer assaulted a lady in the house
where he was billeted. "When I called for help," she
states, "my father, aged seventy-one, rushed up to pro-
tect me. At this moment about fifteen or twenty sol*-
diers who were billeted on one of our neighbours broke
open our front door, seized my father, dragged him
into the street, and shot him to death. They began
trampling furiously on his body, and my daughter,
aged thirteen, opened her window to see what was
making so much noise. She was struck by a bullet,
which passed right through her, and died in agony
after twenty-four hours."

At Fontaine- Artnee^^ in the Commune of Rieuoc^ they
pillaged a farm and shot the farmer, who would not
leave his fields. His wife found his body. "He had
received shots in the head which had blown out his
eyes. A sum of 800 francs which he had on him had
disappeared."

"One laS.

'"One 1 10-2.

"Five 17-8.

[Maps]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

At Gault'le-Foret''^ they carried off a garde-chain-
petre and shot him in a neighbouring village. A farmer,
his wife, and his little son of eleven were fleeing from
their farm for fear it should be burnt over their heads.
As they fled the farmer was shot dead, the wife received
a bullet in the thigh, and the child was hit in the calf
and died a week later of gangrene.

At Cham f guy on '^^ they burned fifteen houses, using
hand-grenades, petrol, and one of their special inflam-
matory liquids. They shot three civilians in cold
blood, besides two French prisoners of war. One man
was dragged to his death before the eyes of his wife.
"The blood was pouring from his ears. I could do
nothing to help him, for his tormentors thrust their
rifle-muzzles at my throat."

As Esternay^^ on Sept. 6th, the Germans pillaged
nine-tenths of the houses. "The pillage was organ-
ised," states the Mayor's Assessor; "the objects taken
were loaded on carts. My wife saw them put a side-
board on a cart which the pillagers had filled with
bottles of champagne." Thirty-six hostages were seized,
including ten women — one of them with a baby six
months old. A man was dragged into the street and
shot in front of the church. Five women were discov-

"One 69-72.

'•One 107-9; Five 35-6, 42-3.
"One 113-7; Bland pp. 97-xoa

[Map 3]

ESTERNAY, COURGIVAUX, COUREY

ered by the Germans hiding in a cellar. "Are you
going to kill old women?" asked one of them. They
hustled her out of the rocMn, and shouted to the rest:
**A11 strip naked." None of them moved; the Ger-
mans aimed their rifles; a woman raised her arm to
push aside one of the barrels, and the Germans fired.
Two women were wounded, one of whom died next
day.

Chatillon-sur-Morin '''^ was pillaged by the Germans
on Sept. 6th. They burned twenty-one houses out of
thirty-six, and two French soldiers perished in the
flames. They pillaged Courgivaux "^^ on the same date,
and murdered a cowherd. "There was a bullet wound
in the back of his head and a bayonet wound in his
chest." But von Biilow penetrated no further to the
south, for here d'Esperay fell upon him from the west,
and Foch frcxn Sezanne.

This was the track of von Billow's right. His left
wing — the Prussian Guard — came down by the road
that leads through Hirson and Reims and Eperaay.

At Courey^ north-east of Rheims, their work is re-
corded by a German soldier stationed there a month aft-
erwards. "The village and the workmen's houses," he
writes in his diary, "^^^ "have been looted and gutted

"Five 51.

"Five 25-6.

*** Bland p. aoa

[Map 3]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

from top to bottom. Horrible. There is, after all,
something in all the talk about the German barbar-
ians."

The Germans entered Reims ^* on Sept. 3rd. "There
was no fighting either in the town itself or in the im-
mediate neighbourhood," states the Mayor, "and the
forts had been evacuated by our troops." The Grer-
mans imposed requisitions on Reims, for which they
demanded a security of 1,000,000 francs in cash, and
on Sept. 4th the Mayor was negotiating about this
with Grerman officers at the Hotel-de-Ville when a
German battery began to bombard the town. On this
occasion the damage suffered by the cathedral was
slight, and the bombardment did not begin again till
Sept. 12th, when the town was evacuated by the Ger-
mans. On that date they seized a body of civilian
hostages to cover their retreat. A proclamation was
posted in the streets, signed "The General Command-
ing," and dated "Reims, Sept. 12th, 1914." — "In
order," it announced, "sufficiently to ensure the safety
of our troops and the tranquillity of the population of
Reims, the persons mentioned have been seized as hos-
tages by the Commander of the German Army. These
hostages will be shot if there is the least disorder. On
the other hand, if the town remains absolutely quiet,

**One 121 ; Biyce p. 185 (= Bland pp. 102-4; "Scraps of Paper'*

PP- «4-5)*

[Map$]

REIMS, MARFAVX, JONQVERY

these hostages and inhabitants will be placed under the
protection of the German Army." The Mayor was
compelled to make the same announcement in a proc-
lamation signed by himself. A list of eighty hostages
was appended, with a note that "several others" had
been taken as well. "A hundred hostages," states the
Mayor in his evidence, "including myself, were led out
into the country, five hundred yards beyond the last
houses of Reims." The work of destruction that fol-
lowed is notorious. Driven out of the town, the Ger-
mans vented their spite on the cathedral and the in-
habitants. By October 7th, 1914, three hundred of
the civilian population which the German Army had
"taken imder its protection" had already been killed
by Grerman shells.

Marfaux^^ south-west of Reims, was entered by
the "Elisabeth Regiment" of the Prussian Guard on
Sept. 3rd. "Nineteen houses were burnt out of thirty-
six," states an inhabitant; "the pillage was systematic.
The valuables and linen taken by the soldiers were
loaded at once on waggons. I and several other inhabi-
tants tried to save our beasts. We were immediately
seized and lined up against a wall by order of the
Commandant. We were kept there till 10 next morn-
ing."

-One 67-S. 8*^3851

[Map 3]

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

At Jonquery^^^ on Sept. 3rd, a Grerman aeroplane
alighted, and was followed by a detachment of in-
fantry in the course of the day. Next day the Mayor
was conveyed by a German officer in a motor-car to
the spot where the aeroplane lay, and was informed
(though this was not the fact) that inhabitants of the
commune had fired on the aviators, and carried off the
corpse of one of them towards Romigny. "He gave
me till 8 o'clock next morning," states the Mayor, "to
reveal the names of these persons. If I failed to fur-
nish the information, I should be shot and the village
burnt." Next morning the Mayor was duly seized,
taken to a farm, and placed against a wall with three
other men and a woman. One of the men attempted
to escape, and the Germans shot him. Then they led
the Mayor round the commime, to make the people
come out of doors with their cattle. "At this moment
the school was set on fire, and soon seventeen houses
out of the thirty-five in the village were in flames."

Epemay^^ on the Mame, was for a brief time the
quarters of von Moltke, the Chief of the German Gen-
eral Staff. "Private property," he announced in a
proclamation dated "Epernay, Sept. 4th, 1914," and
signed with his name, "will be absolutely respected by
the German troops. Supplies of all kinds serving the

"Five 40-1

""Scraps of Paper" pp. ao-3.

[Map 3]

100

EPERNAY, MONTMORT, FROMENTIERES

requirements of the Grerman troops, and particularly
provisions, will be paid for in cash." Meanwhile, the
Director of the Commissariat of the Prussian Guard,
an official named Kahn, had demanded from the
municipality, for Sept. 5th, 120,000 kilogrammes of
oats, 21,000 of bread, 500 of roasted coffee, 10,000 of
preserved vegetables and semolina, and 1 2,000 of salt
bacon and lard. The municipality met the whole of
this requisition within the appointed time, except for
the salt bacon, of which there were only 2,000 kilos in
the town; whereupon Kahn imposed a fine of 176,550
francs on Epemay, payable on Sept. 6th at noon, "for
having failed to deliver in time the provisions neces-
sary for the troops." An emergency meeting of the
municipal council was held that evening at 9.15 p. m.
"In spite of the Mayor's endeavours," it is recorded in
the minutes of this meeting, "he had not been able to
obtain either the items of the sum claimed or any
reduction in the amount of the fine. In default of
payment of this sum, the Grerman authorities threat-
ened to take the most rigorous procfeedings against the
population itself, and to conduct forcible perquisitions
in the houses of the inhabitants. On account of the
threats made," the municipality appealed to private
individuals to collect the sum demanded. Von Biilow,
in his proclamation of the day before, had informed
the people of Epernay that the civil authorities, by

[Map 3]

loi

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

obeying his injunctions, were "in a position to save the
inhabitants from the terrors and scourges of war/*
But on Sept. 5th the Chief of the Grerman Greneral
Staff had other things on his mind.

At Monttnort^^ across the Marne, on Sept. 5th, the
Prussian Guard shot a notary whom they met on the
road, and another person, imidentified. At la Caure^^
on Sept, 6th, they burned six houses, and twice tried
to set the Mairie on fire. An officer to whom the
Mayor protested replied, "It is war." — "The inccn"^
diarism," states the Mayor, "was the work of pure
malice, for there had been no fighting in the village,
and the Germans alleged no complaint." At Corfelix^^
on Sept. 7th, the Germaps carried off twelve hostages
and shot one of them on the road. At Fromentieres^^^
on the same date, they drove all the remaining inhabi-
tants into the church at the point of their bayonets,
confined them there for three hours, and plundered
the village at their leisure — a method already prac-
tised in the villages roimd Louvain.*^''

At Baye^^ the Germans pillaged practically every
house in the village, but they busied themselves above

"Five 12-4.

••Five 5a

"One loi.

"One 99.

■* See Vol. I. p 139.

"One 123-5.

[Map 3]
102

BAYE, BAIZIU ETOGES

all with the chateau^ which contained a famous col-
lection of objects of art, and was appropriated as quar-
ters by the Duke of Brunswick and the staff of the
Tenth German Corps. Baron de Baye's own bedroom
suffered worst of all. "The drawers had been left open
and numbers of objects were lying scattered about the
floor." The words "I. K. Hoheit" and "Egelberg"
were found chalked up on the bedroom door. "On
Sept. 7th," states an inhabitant of Baye, "I was requi-
sitioned by the Germans to pick up at the chateau a
cart loaded with four packing-cases and drive it to the
neighbourhood of Rethel. The cart was ready loaded,
and I had only to harness my horse to it. When I
reached my destination three of the cases, which were
badly nailed up, were emptied into a waggon. They
were full of little parcels. The third was not opened.
It was loaded on the waggon as it was."

At Baizil^^ on Sept. 5th, three Germans entered a
house, tried unsuccessfully to violate the owner's two
daughters, and then shot his wife in the stomach —
out of spite because the others had escaped. The
woman died in hospital on Oct. 10th. Etoges^^
too, was pillaged on Sept. 5th. "The cellars, in par-
ticular, were completely emptied," states the Mayor.
"Women attached to the German Red Cross," he

Five 15-6.
Five 19-22.

[Map 3]

103

FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

adds, "participated in the thefts committed at the gen-
eral shop, chateau, and private houses." There were
fifteen inhabitants hiding in a cellar, and one of them
went out because a German had fired at a pile of
straw near the entrance of the cellar and set it on fire.
The others heard him cry: "Mercy! Don't hurt me!
I have a wife and children." A mcxnent after they, too,
were dragged out by the Germans and saw his corpse
lying by a wall. His wife, daughter and sister were
among the party, and heard the words he spoke. At
Beaunay ®^ a civilian was shot at by an Uhlan, but es-
caped with a wound. Coizard^^ was pillaged, and
seven houses there were burnt. A French officer,
wounded and a prisoner, was murdered by the Ger-
mans, in a farm near Coizard, when they were com-
pelled to retreat. At V ert-la-Gravelle •^ a peasant was
wounded mortally by a lance-thrust. He dragged him-
self to the door of a house and died. At la Fere Cham-
penoise ®* the town clerk was carried away captive by
a detachment of the Prussian Guard.

The column to which this detachment belonged had
come down the high road which runs southward
through Vertus from Epemay. They were the ex-

"Five 23-4.
"Five 54-6.
"One 104.
•*One 105-6.

[Map 3]

104

LA FERE CHAMPENOISE

treme left wing of von Billow's Army, and they pen-
etrated as far south as his right, which had come
through Chateau-Thierry and Montmirail to the Grand
Morin. His centre, striving to keep in line, descended
from Fromentieres and Baye and Coizard into the hol-
low basin of St. Gond, where the Petit Morin River
takes its rise. The battalions and batteries of the
Prussian Guard adventured themselves on the solid-
seeming clay, but on Sept. 9th the rain came down
and turned the clay to mire. The Prussian Guard were
caught by the French fire as they battled with the
waters, and were smitten like Pharaoh and his hosts.

[Map 3]

to5

V. BETWEEN NAMUR AND VERDUN.

(i) Andenne and Namur.

The Marshes of St. Gond were the mid-point of
a battle-line which stretched from the Oise to the
Argonne, and ran on eastwards from the Argonne to
the Vosges. In history, perhaps, it will be remem-
bered as the line on which Geraian strategy was foiled ;
for the people of France, it was the limit of Gemian
outrage and devastation. North and east of that line
there was murder, rape, plunder, arson ; south and west
of it the farms and villages stood, and the women and
children only knew by hearsay the fate which — over
there — ^had been inflicted on their flesh and blood by the
invaders. In the preceding chapters of this and of a
former volume ^'^ the course of half these invading
armies has been described — from the German frontier,
where the terror began, to the limit set by defeat. The
other half of the record remains to be told, and it could
be told in equal detail, town by town, homestead by
homestead, from the testimony of those who survived
the outrages and of those who inflicted them. For
the individual actors in the tragedy each scene was

•• "The German Terror in Belgium."

[Frontispiece]

1 06

HVY. ANDENNE

equally intense; from day to day the guilt and agony
were renewed ; they were as poignant at la Fere Cham-
pcnoise on Sept. 6th as on Aug. 4th at Vise by Liege.
But for those who read the tale there comes a point
where imagination rebels or is blurred by mere repeti-
tion, and the remainder shall therefore be more briefly
written — to complete the record rather than to sharpen
die impression.

Half the Grerman armies crossed the Meuse between
Liege and the Dutch frontier, and wheeled through
Belgium into France. The other half crossed the river
higher up, between Namur and Verdun, overran the
Champagne flats, and penetrated into the hill-country
of the Argonne. The two groups were linked together
by the left flank columns of von Biilow, whose task
was to seize the crossings of the Meuse between Liege
and Namur and take the fortress of Namur itself,
while von Billow's main body swept forward through
the open country to the north and west.

In the struggle for the passage of the Meuse the
civil population suffered as cruelly as on the Sambre.
In the Arrondissement of Huy^ above Liege, 255 houses
were destroyed, and about 58 people killed.®^ Fur-

"Flemallc: a 19, 21; xvii p. 65. Huy: b 4; xvii p. 61. (N.B. In
the following notes, where no reference is given after a name, the
Implied reference is to the statistical tables on pp. 139-144 of the
Belgian Government's Reply and in Annexe a to the Belgian Com-
mission's Reports).

[Frontispiece]

107

ANDENNE AND NAMUR

ther up the river, at Andenne^^'^ in the Province of
Namur^ 25b people were killed and 37 houses de-
stroyed. The Belgian Reply to the German White
Book summarises the evidence as to how the massacre
occurred : —

"The town of Andenne is situated on the right bank
of the Meuse, between Namur and Huy. A bridge
gives it communication with Seilles, which is built
beside the river, on the left bank. Before the war
Andenne had a population of 7,800 souls.

"The German troops, wishing to cross to the left
bank, reached Andenne on the morning of Wednes-
day, Aug. 19th. The advance-guard of Uhlans re-
ported that the bridge was useless; it had been blown
up the same day at about 8 a. m. by a Belgian infantry
regiment. The Uhlans withdrew after seizing the
communal funds and ill-using the Burgomaster, Dr.
Camus. The latter had for several days past taken the
most minute precautions to prevent the population tak-
ing any part in hostilities. Notices enjoining calmness
had been posted, and all arms collected in the Town
Hall. The authorities had approached some of the
inhabitants personally to explain to them what they
should do.

"^b 1-4 and Bryce p. 184; xi p. 87; xxi p. 123; Reply iii and pp.
464-8 ; German White Book B.

[Map z]
108

ANDENNE—THE OUTBREAK

"The main body of the troops reached Andenne in
the afternoon. The regiments spread through the town
and its suburbs while awaiting the completion of a
bridge of boats, which was not finished till the next
day.

"The first meeting of the invaders with the towns-
folk was peaceable enough. The troops made requisi-
tions and obtained what they demanded. At first
the soldiers paid for their purchases and for the drinks
which they had in the cafes* But towards evening the
situation changed for the worse in this respect.
Whether it was that discipline slackened or that alcohol
began to take effect, the soldiers refused to pay the
inhabitants, who were too frightened to dare to raise
objections. There was no trouble, and the night passed
without incident.

"On Thursday, Aug. 20th, the bridge was ready
and the troops passed in great numbers through the
town, making for the left bank of the Meuse. The
inhabitants watched their passage from inside their
houses. Suddenly, at about 6 p. m., a rifle-shot rang
out in the street, and was immediately followed by a
burst of firing. The movement of troops was arrested
and the ranks fell into disorder, panic-stricken soldiers
firing at random. A machine-gun posted at a cross-
roads opened fire on the inhabitants. One field-gun was

[Map i]
109

ANDENNE AND NAMVR

unlimbered and discharged three shells at the town in
three different directions.

"At the first shot the inhabitants of the streets
through which the soldiers were passing guessed what
was about to happen, and took refuge in their base*
ments or climbed over walls and garden-hedges and
sought safety in the fields or in distant cellars. A cer-
tain number of men who would not, or could not, flee
were soon killed.

'The sack and pillage of the houses in the chief
streets of the town began immediately. Windows,
shutters, and doors were smashed with hatchets ; pieces
of furniture were broken open and destroyed. The
soldiers rushed into the cellars, drank themselves
drunk, broke all the bottles of wine they could not
carry off, and finished up by setting some of the houses
alight. During the night the firing burst out again
several times. The whole population, trembling with
fear, hid themselves in their cellars.

"On the morrow, Friday, Aug. 2 1st, at 4 a. m., the
soldiers scattered through the town and hunted all the
population into the streets, compelling men, women,
and children to walk with their hands above their
heads. Those who were too slow in obeying, or who
did not understand orders given them in German, were
immediately struck down. All who tried to escape were
shot. It was at this stage that Dr. Camus, for whom

[Map i]
tlO

ANDENNE—THE MASSACRE

the Germans seemed to reserve their special hatred,
was killed.

"A Flemish clockmaker, who had only started busi-
ness in the town a short time before, left his house
when the soldiers ordered him out, supporting his
father-in-law, an old man of over eighty. This, of
course, prevented him from holding up both his hands.
A soldier rushed at him and struck him on the neck
with his hatchet. He fell dying before his own door,
and when his wife tried to go to his assistance she was
driven indoors and had to look on helplessly at her
husband's death-agonies. A soldier threatened to shoot
her with his revolver if she crossed the threshold.

"In the meantime, the whole population was driven
towards the Place des Tilleuls. Old men, sick people,
even helpless invalids, were taken there on barrows,
while others were helped or carried by their relations.
The men were then separated from the women and
children. All were searched, but no arms were found
on them. One unlucky man had some empty Grerman
or Belgian cartridge cases in his pocket. He was im-
mediately seized and led aside. The same thing hap^
pened to a shoemaker who had had a wound in his
finger for a month past. A mechanic was arrested for
having in his pocket a screw-wrench, which was con-
sidered to be a weapon ; and another man, because his
expressicm appeared to show indifference to, or con-

III

ANDENNE AND NAMUR

tempt for, what was going on around him. All these
poor men were shot out-of-hand in the sight of the
crowd. They met their end bravely.

"At their officers' command the soldiers selected
forty or fifty men at random from the assemblage, led
them away and shot them, some by the Meuse, the rest
.near the police-station.

"The men were for a long time kept in the square.
Two unfortimates had been brought there, one of
whom was shot in the breast, the other wounded by
a bayonet thrust. They lay face downwards on the
groimd, reddening the dust with their blood and beg-
ging for water. The officers forbade the Grermans to
assist them; a soldier was reprimanded for wanting
to offer his water-bottle to the wounded men, both of
whom died in the course of the day.

"While this tragedy was being enacted in the Place
des Tilleuls, other bodies of troops spread themselves
over the neighbouring districts, pursuing their work of
destruction, pillage, and incendiarism. Seven men
belonging to the same family were taken into a meadow
fifty yards away from the home of one of them, where
some of them were shot and the rest killed and muti-
lated with axes. A tall, red-haired soldier, with his
face marked by a scar, distinguished himself by the
ferocious way in which he mutilated the victims. A
child was killed in its mother's arpis by blows fnwn

[Map i]
112

ANDENNE—THE HOSTAGES

an axe. One young boy and one woman were shot.

"About 10 a. m. the officers sent the women back
with orders to remove the dead and clean up the pools
of blood which reddened the streets and houses. At
noon the surviving men, about 800 in number, were
interned as hostages in three little houses near the
bridge. They were not allowed out on any pretext,
and were so closely packed that they could not possibly
sit down. In a short while these prisons became stink-
ing pest-houses. The women were presently invited to
take food to their relations. Many of them had fled,
fearing violation. The hostages were not released
finally till the following Tuesday.

"The statistics of the sack of Andenne are these:
nearly 300 people were butchered in Andenne and
Seilles ; abput 200 houses were burnt in the two places
together. Many of the inhabitants are missing. Al-
most all the houses were ransacked and pillaged. The
pillaging lasted several days.

"The many townspeople who have been questioned
are unanimous in maintaining that not a single shot
was fired at the troops. As they cannot account for the
catastrophe which bathed their town in blood, they put
forward various suggestions to explain it. Many of
them are convinced that Andenne was sacrificed to es-
tablish a reign of terror. They instance words dropped
by officers which go to show that the sacking of the

[Map i]

113

ANDENNE AND NAMUR

town was premeditated^ and recall remarks made by
troops marching towards Andenne, to the effect that
they were going to burn the town and massacre the
whole population. They think that the destruction
of the bridge, the blocking of a tunnel near by, and
the resistance of the Belgian troops were among the
causes of the massacre. All of them maintain that
nothing could possibly justify or excuse the behaviour
of the German forces."

The whole Canton of Andenne ^^ was ravaged as
the Germans flooded up the right bank of the'Meuse,
and then the wave of destruction swept over Namur.^^
What happened here is recorded in the Eleventh Report
of the Belgian Commission: —

"On Aug. 2 1st, 1914, the Germans bombarded the
town of Namur, without any previous notice being
given. The bombardment began at about 1 p. m. and
continued for twenty minutes. The besieger was in
possession of long-range guns, which enabled him to
fire upon the town before the forts had been taken.
Shells fell upon the prison, the hospital, the burgo-
master's house, and the railway station, causing con-
flagrations and killing several persons.

•*Goyet: xv p. 21. Haltinne. Maizeret. Loycrs.

^b 8, 11-12; Biyce p. 184; xi pp. 81-4; vii p. 53; Bland p. 127.

[Map i]
114

NAMUR— INCENDIARISM

''On Aug. 23rd the German Army pierced the ex-
terior line of defence, and the Belgian 4th Division
retreated by the angle between the rivers Sambre and
Meuse, while the greater number of the forts were
still uninjured and continuing to resist. The German
troops penetrated into the town of Namur on the
same day about 4 p. m.

"On this day order was preserved; officers and sol-
diers requisitioned food and drink, paying for them
sometimes with coined money, more often with requisi-
tion-certificates. Most of the latter were bogus docu-
ments, but the townspeople were trustful and ignorant
of the German language, and so accepted them without
making difficulties.

"Matters went on in the same way on Aug. 24th
till 9 o'clock in the evening. At that hour shooting
suddenly began in several quarters of the town, and
German infantry were seen advancing in skirmishing
order down the principal streets. Almost at the same
moment an immense column of smoke and fire was
seen rising from the central quarter of the place; the
Germans had fired houses in the Place d'Armes and
four other spots, the Place Leopold, Rue Rogier, Rue
St. Nicolas, and the Avenue de la Plante.

"All was now panic among the peaceable and de-
fenceless townsfolk. The Germans began breaking open
front doors with the butts of their rifles, and throwing

[Map i]

115

ANDENNE AND NAMUR

incendiary matter into the vestibules. Six dwellers
in the Rue Rogier, who were flying from their burning
houses, were shot on their own doorsteps. The rest
of the inhabitants of this street were forced to avoid
a similar fate by escaping through their back gardens.
Many of them were in their night-clothes, for they
had not the time to dress or to pick up their money.

"In the Rue St. Nicolas several workmen's dwell-
ings were set on fire, and a larger number, together
with some wood-yards, were burnt in the Avenue de
la Plante.

"The conflagration in the Place d'Armes continued
till Thursday. It destroyed the Town Hall, with its
archives and pictures, the adjacent group of houses,
and the whole quarter bounded by the Rue du Pont,
the Rue des Brasseurs, and the Rue Bailly, with the
exception of the Hotel des Quatre Fils Aymon.

"No serious attempt was made to prevent the fire
from spreading. At its commencement some of the
townspeople came out at the summons of the fire-bell,
but they were forbidden to stir from their houses. The
Chief of the Fire Brigade, though the bullets were
whistling round him, got as far as the site of the disas-
ter; but an officer arrested him in the Place d'Armes,
and then, acting under the orders of his superior, sent
him away under an escort.

"The Germans, with the object of justifying their

[Map i]

ii6

NAMUR— PILLAGE

proceedings, alleged that shots had been fired against
their troops on the Monday evening. Every circum-
stance demonstrates the absurdity of this statement.
The juxtaposition of observed facts and the sequence
of concordant evidence lead to the conclusion that the
incidents at Namur were deliberately prepared, and
merely formed part of the general system of terrorism
which was habitually practised by the Grerman Army
in Belgium.

"Fifteen days back the people of Namur had given
over to the Belgian authorities all the firearms that they
possessed. They had been informed by official notices
about the rules laid down in the laws of war, and had
been called on by the civil and military authorities, by
the clergy, and the Press to take no part with the bel-
ligerents. The Belgian troops had evacuated the town
thirty-six hours before the conflagration. The people,
even if they had possessed weapons, would not have
been so insane as to rise and attack the masses of Ger-
man troops who filled the town and occupied all its ap-
proaches. And how can anyone accoimt for the strange
fact that, at all the five points at which the alleged
rising was supposed to have broken out, the Germans
were found in possession of the incendiary substances
which were i:equired for the prompt burning of the
place?

[Map i]

117

ANDENNE AND NAMUR

'The disorder which followed assisted the pillage in
which the Grerman Army habitually engages. In the
Place d'Armes houses were thoroughly sacked before
they were set on fire. In the quarter by the Gate of
St. Nicolas the inhabitants, when they returned to their
homes, found that everything had been plundered; in
one case a safe had been broken open and 17,000
francs' worth of securities had disappeared.

"On the following days, though things were com-
paratively quiet, pillage continued. In several houses
where Geraian officers were quartered the furniture was
broken up, and wine and imderclothing (even female
underclothing) was stolen.

"Our witnesses have detailed to us several outrages
on women. In one case we have evidence concerning
the rape of a girl by four soldiers. A Belgian quarter-
master of gendarmes saw the daughter of the proprietor
of the hotel in which he was staying outraged by two
Grerman soldiers, without being able to intervene for
her protection, at 4 o'clock in the morning.

"Many inhabitants of Namur perished during the fire
and the fusillade. Some aged people were left in the
burning houses ; others were killed in the streets or shot
in their own dwellings. In all, seventy-five civilians
perished in one or other of these ways oa Aug. 23rd,
24th, and 25th."

[Map i]

118

NAMUR— MASSACRE

*We crossed Namur during the bombardment of the
town," states a Belgian soldier/ "and the streets were
full of the corpses of men, some Belgian soldiers,
priests, women, and children. I also saw the headless
corpses of a woman and child lying over a balcony of
a house in one of the streets. I think they had been
killed during the bombardment of the town. In a
street at Namur I and my two comrades (we had
changed into civilian clothes meantime) mixed with
a crowd of about 150 people, when the German sol-
diers came up from side streets and without a word of
waming fired on the unarmed people. Only ten per-
sons escaped — I being one of them."

When Namur had fallen it was the turn of the vil-
lages on the north,^ sheltered hitherto by the circle of
the Namur forts. At Champion, on Aug. 24th, 10
houses were burnt and the population imprisoned in the
church for shots which German patrols, on their own
confession, had fired into the air. In the Canton of
Namur Nord, 78 people were killed and 449 houses de-
stroyed altogether.

'Franc Waret. Gelbress^e: b 9. Marchorelette : b 7. Bonnintff b 8.
Champion: Reply p. 117; German V^hite Book, App. 36. Bouge.
Vedrin. Temploux: b la

[Map i3

119

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

(ii) Through Dinant to Champagne.

This was how von Billow's left flank carried out its
work from Liege to Namur ; beyond Namur, in the an-
gle between the Sambre and the Meuse, von Billow
joined hands with von Hansen, whose Saxon army had
crossed the Meuse above the junction of the two rivers.

The Saxons entered Belgium at Gouvy^ near the
head-waters of the Ourthe. "Here," writes a German
diarist on Aug. 8th, "there was firing by Belgians on
German troops, so we pillaged the goods station
straight away. Some cases there. Eggs, shirts, and
anything eatable dragged out of the cases. The safe
gutted and the money divided among the men. Se-
curities torn up."

"A child and an old woman were shot," writes an-
other near Erezee} "A wounded Belgian was carried
away half-dead. All revolting and horrible. From
where we are bivouacking we see the burning houses in
the valley. It is revolting. . . . North of our route
we passed another large village reduced to ashes."

"At Braibant^' writes a third ^ on Aug. 19th, "what-
ever did not come of its own accord was plundered —
fowls, eggs, milk, pigeons, calves. Many jolly hap-
penings during the plundering.

*B6dier p. 21 ; German White Book, App. 13.
^ Bland pp. 162-3.
•Btyce p. 175.

[Map i]

120

BRAIBANT. SPONTIN, DIN ANT

"Aug. 2oth. — ^Thc cavalry and the Marburg Jae-
gers are playing the devil in the surrounding villages."

"At Spontin^' writes a fourth on Aug. 23rd, "a com-
pany of the 107th Regiment and the 108th had orders
to stay behind and search the village, take the inhabi-
tants prisoners, and bum the houses. At the entrance
to the village, on the right, lay two young girls, one
dead, the other severely woimded. The priest, too, was
shot in front of the station. Thirty other men were
shot according to martial law, and 50 made prisoners."

And so, plundering and burning and killing,^ the
Saxons descended on Dinant ® to force the passage of
the Meuse. At Dinant 606 civilians — men, women,
an^ children — were massacred, mostly between the
morning and evening of Aug. 23rd. The circumstances
are described in a report from M. Tschoffen, the Pub-
lic Prosecutor of Dinant, who survived this terrible
day and returned to bear witness after three months'
detention in a Grerman prison camp: —

"From Aug. 6th — that is, before the arrival of the
first French troops, who came from Givet — German

'Bland pp. 192-3; Reply p. 432.

*Yyoir, Houx, Sorinnes, Gemechennes: xx p. 94; for Sorinnes see
also German White Book, Apps. 31-2.

'Dinant (including Leffe, Bouvignes, Dinant, les Rivages, NeflFe,
Anseremme) : b 26-30; Bryce p. 171; xi pp. 90-3; xx; xxi pp. 125-7;
Ann. 3 (list of victims) ; German White Book C; Reply iv, and pp.
468-482; Bedier p. 12; Bland pp. 112, 134-5, ^IS'Tt Carnets pp. 19-24.

[Map i]

121

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

cavalry appeared at Dinant and Anseremme. These
patrols sometimes penetrated into the heart of the
town, and were met by rifle fire when they came into
contact with the Belgian troops, who were then hold-
ing both banks of the Meuse.

"This is a statement of the incidents as they oc-
curred, I mention them merely because they show that
the populace entirely abstained from attacks on the
enemy.

"On Aug. 6th, at Anseremme (Dinant and Anse-
remme, although two separate communes, form a sin-
gle group of houses), Belgian engineers fired on a hus-
sar patrol and wounded a horse. At Furfooz the dis-
mounted soldier took a farmer's horse in exchange for
his wounded one.

"The same day or the day after, three hussars ap-
peared in the Rue de Jacques (Ciney road). The Bel-
gian carabineers or chasseurs woimded one and took him
prisoner, and also another, whose horse was hit. The
third escaped. These men belong to a Hanoverian
regiment.

"On the 12th, at 'aux Rivages' (Dinant) a detach-
ment of the 148th French Infantry annihilated a cav-
alry patrol, only one man escaping. About the same
date another detachment opened fire at Tonds de
Leffe.' Two German cavalrymen were killed.

*^Qn Aug. 15th the Grermans attempted to force the

[Map 1]

121

DINANT—AUO. ffTH TO AUG. MND

Meuse at Anseremmc, Dinant, and Bouvignes, but
were repulsed. During the day several Grerman de-
tachments entered the city, but did not molest the
townsfolk at all.

"The city and its inhabitants had very little to suf-
fer from this engagement, which was, however, a very
sharp one, and lasted all day. A. M. Moussoux was
killed while assisting the wounded, and a woman was
slightly woimded. On the right bank a French shell
fell on a house, and a German shell on the post-ofHce.
Several houses on the left bank were struck by German
shells. From the beginning of the action the Germans
fired on the hospital, which was in full view and was
flying a large Red Cross flag. In a few minutes six
projectiles damaged the building. One shell entered
the chapel just as the orphanage children were coming
from mass. None were hurt.

"On the 17th or 18th the French ceased to hold the
right bank in force, and contented themselves with
patrolling it. Each day rifle and cannon fire was ex-
changed between the two banks. German cavalry again
began to enter the city, where they moved about with
impunity. Thus, about midday on the 19th, an Uhlan,
coming from the direction of Rocher-Bayard, went off
by the Ciney road without molestation. He crossed
almost the whole width of the city. At nightfall on

[Map i]
123

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

the same day another cavalryman made the same jour-
ney and also went off m safety.

''During the night of the 2ist-22nd brisk firing sud-
denly began in the Rue St, Jacques (Ciney road).
Some Grermans had arrived in motor-cars and were
firing on the houses, whose occupants were peacefully
sleeping. They broke open the doors and severely
wounded three people, one at least with the bayonet,
and went away after setting fire to fifteen or twe..:y
houses with bombs. They left a number of these be-
hind, and the inhabitants threw them into the water.
They assert that these were i endiary bombs.

"No one was able to understand this behaviour.
The newspapers had reported that atrocities were com-
mitted near Vise, but no one believed it. Eventually
they came to the conclusion that this attack was the
work of drunken men, and awaited events without un-
due anxiety.

"On Aug. 23rd the battle between the French and
Grerman armies began early with an artillery duel.
The first two rifle shots of the Grermans were aimed
at two young girls who were looking for a better shel-
ter than the one they had.

"Everyone took refuge in the cellars.

"The Gemians descended on Dinant upon Aug. 23rd
by four main roads — all about the same time — ^nearly
6 a. m.

[Map i]

DIN ANT— AUG. SSRD

"These roads were : From Lisogne to Dinant ; from
Ciney to Dinant; Mont St. Nicholas, by which the
troops which were on a part of the plateau of Herbu-
chenne arrived ; and, lastly, the Froidval road, running
from Boiselle to Dinant.

"I. The first of these roads leads to the district
called Tonds de Leffe.'

"Directly they arrived the soldiers entered the
houses, expelled the occupants, killed the men, and set
fire to the houses.

"M. Victor Poncelet was killed in his house in front
of his wife and children. M. Himmer, manager of
the factory at Leffe and Vice-Consul of the Argen-
tine Republic, was shot with a number of his work-
men. One hundred and fifty-two of the staff of the
factory were murdered.

"The Premonstratensian Church was, I am informed,
entered during mass. The men were dragged out and
shot on the spot. One of the Fathers also was mur-
dered.

"But what is the good of giving further details?
One circumstance will sum up all. Of the whole popu-
lation of this district, only nine men (apart from old
men) remain alive. The women and children were
shut up in the Premonstratensian Abbey, which was
afterwards pillaged. We were to see soldiers parading
the city in the vestments of the monks.

[Map I]
125

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

"II. The same scenes of fire and murder occurred
at the Rue St. Jacques, which temiinates the Ciney
road. The victims, however, were not so numerous.
Many of the residents in this district, more alarmed
than the rest of the city by the events of the night of
the 2ist-22nd, had abandoned their houses.

"FrcMn the Rue St. Jacques the Geraians spread over
the whole district. They killed people, but not so
many as at Leffe. The inhabitants were shut up in
the Premonstratensian Abbey. Everything was set on
fire. They burned the tower and roof of our fine old
Gothic church. They set fire to the doors, but did not
succeed in completely destroying them.

"Farther on, the Grand Place and the Rue Grande,
as far as the Rue du Tribunal, were spared for the
time being. The Germans did not go there. The in-
habitants were not interned until the next day. ^

"On the evening of the 24th and on the 25th, they
set this part of the city on fire. Only one building,
the Hotel des Families, remains.

"III. From the Rue du Tribunal to the other side
of the prison the crimes were committed by the forces
coming down from Mont St. Nicholas. I noticed the
numbers, 100th and 101st Foot (Saxon).

"On this route as the troops arrived they behaved
in the same way as at the Rue St. Jacques and at Foiids

[Map i]

iz6

I i ji|i)j ^| B j>:; ^^ ■ y,^^J^^1... . j;>-»

I i

DINANT— CIVILIAN SCREENS

de LeflFe — murder of a number of men, and arrest of
the women and children.

"In the rest of the district the people suffered various
fates.

"Having been gathered together and kept for some
time in a street where they were sheltered from the
dangers of the battle, many of them — men, women,
and children — were taken to a spot where the street is
only built on on one side. The other side runs along the
Meuse. The prisoners were arranged in a long row
to serve as a screen against the fire of the French, while
the Germans defiled behind this living rampart.

"As soon as the French realised who were the vic-
tims offered to them, they ceased fire. A young lady,
twenty years old. Mile. Marsigny, was, however, killed
before her parents' eyes. She was struck in the head by
a French bullet. Among those so exposed were my
deputy, M. Charlier, M. Brichet, the inspector of for-
ests, M. Dumont, the road surveyor, and their wives
and families. The prisoners were exposed in this way
for nearly two hours and were then taken back to
prison.

"The same thing happened to a group of citizens
who were exposed in the prison square to the fire of the
French. They were made to keep their hands raised.
They included a man of eighty, M. Laurent, the hon-
orary president of the Tribunal, his son-in-law, M.

[Map i]
127

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

Laurent, the judge, and the latter's wife and children.
There were no casualties, as the French ceased fire,
and the Germans were able to cross without risk. After
two hours they were shut up in the prison. I mention
the names of some, because they are magistrates and
officials with whom I am personally acquainted, but
the number subjected to this treatment was at least
150.

"The other residents in this district were, like my
family and myself, taken to Bouille and crammed into
the house, stable, and forge. They even overflowed
into the street.

"The people in the forge, including myself, were,
as I have stated, brought out about two o'clock and
taken to prison.

"About six o'clock the others were taken to a place
in front of my house, not far from the prison. There
the able-bodied men were taken out and lined up in
four rows against my garden wall. An officer ad-
dressed them in German, and then, in the presence of
the women and children, gave the order to fire. All
fell down. The soldiers looking on from the terrace
formed by the garden of M. Franquinet, the architect,
burst into fits of laughter. Encircled by the flames
which were consuming almost the entire district, those
whose age or sex had saved them were set at liberty.

"I believe the exact number killed here was 129.

[Map i]
128

DIN ANT— FIRST MASSACRE

"The volley which struck them down was the one
that we heard when we were placed in the prison yard to
be led to death. Thank God, we were late. One hun-
dred and twenty-nine men were killed at this spot, but
the number condemned was still larger. Several fell
when the order to fire was given, and others were only
slightly wounded and succeeded in escaping during
the night. Not all those whose bodies were removed
were killed on the spot. Some of those who escaped
told me that M. Wasseige, the banker, was heard to
say at the beginning of the night to a wounded man :
'Don't move. Keep still/ A passing soldier at once
finished him off.

"Not until Wednesday could any attention be given
to these victims. All movement was forbidden before
then. On Monday and Tuesday the wounded were
heard crying out and moaning. They died from want
of attention.

"IV. The troops who came by the Froidval road oc-
cupied the district of Tenant.' The inhabitants were
seized on the arrival of the Germans and kept under
guard near Rocher-Bayard. When the fire of the
French slackened, the Germans began to construct a
bridge, but they were still annoyed by a few shots. As
these were infrequent, the Germans — ^honestly or oth-
erwise — came to the conclusion that they were fired by
francs'tireurs. They sent M. Bourdon, the assistant

[Map i]

129

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

registrar of the Court, to announce that if the firing
continued, all the prisoners would be executed. He did
so, and, recrossing the Meuse, surrendered himself and
informed the German officers that he had been able to
make sure that only French soldiers were firing. A
few more French bullets came, and then a monstrous
event took place, which one's mind would refuse to be-
lieve were it not that the survivors who bear witness
and the gaping wounds of the corpses furnished abso-
lutely conclusive proof. The whole mass of prison-
ers — men, women, and children — ^were pushed up
against a wall and shot.

"Eighty victims fell at this spot.

"Was it here or at the Neffe Viaduct, which I men-
tion later, that a three months' old child was killed?
I no longer remember.

"That evening the Germans searched among the
bodies. Under the heap a few poor wretches were
still living. They were dragged out and added to
some prisoners brought from elsewhere and put to
dig a grave for the dead. They were to be deported
to Germany. Among them was a fifteen-year-old boy,
the son of Registrar Bourdon, who was found under
the bodies of his father, mother, sister, and brother.

"Those buried included a woman who was still alive.
She groaned, but it mattered not* She was thrown into
the trench with the others.

[Map i]
130

DINANT—SECOND MASSACRE

"Right bank of the Meuse: The Germans crossed
the river.

*'St. Medard suffered relatively little. Not many
were killed, and it is there that the greatest number of
houses remain standing.

"In the NefFe district the Germans searched the
houses, burning a fair number but leaving the rest
alone. Some of the people were left at liberty; oth-
ers were expelled from their homes and shot on the
road; others again were arrested and taken to Ger-
many. In some cases entire families were mufdered
without regard to age or sex (in particular the Guerys
and the Morelles). One house caught fire where a
woman with a broken leg was lying, still alive. Some
of the people asked permission from the soldiers to res-
cue her. It was refused, and she was burnt alive.

"About forty people took refuge in a viaduct, under
the railway line. Shots were fired and hand-grenades
thrown at them. The survivors decided to come out,
and the men were arrested to be taken to Germany.

"On Monday the 24th the Germans arrested the
people of the Grande district, which they had spared
the day before. They were shut up in the Premon-
stratensian Abbey.

"The few people who took the risk of coming out
of the houses that were spared from the flames in the
other districts were either arrested or chased by shots.

[Map i]

131 •

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

Several were killed, especially by soldiers firing across
the Meuse.

"The heights which dominate the city were guarded.
Some inhabitants who tried to escape that way suc-
ceeded, but more were arrested or killed.

"Priests and monks, professors at Belle Vue Col-
lege, brothers of the Christian faith and lay monks
were seized and interned in a convent at Marche.
Towards the middle of September, General von Long-
champ, the military governor of the Province of Na-
mur, released them with the apologies of the German
Army!

"All Monday and Tuesday the pillaging was con-
tinued, and the destruction of the city by fire was com-
pleted.

"Altogether, in this city of 1,400 dwelling-houses
and 7,000 inhabitants, 630 to 650 were killed, of whom
more than 100 were women, children imder fifteen, and
old men. Not 300 houses remain.

"Were women outraged?"

"Only one case came directly under my notice. A
very respectable citizen told me that, under the pre-
tence of searching for weapons, his wife had been
searched under her underclothes.

"Dr. X. told me that there were numerous cases of
rape. He knew of three clear cases in his own practice
alone.

[Map i]
132

DINANT— HOSTAGES AND PILLAGE

'Tillage was openly carried on. They brought carts
on three consecutive days to my house to take away the
plate, bedclothes — of which none remain — furniture,
men's and women's clothing, linen, trinkets, ornaments
from the mantelpiece, a collection of weapons from the
Congo, pictures, wine, and even the decorations which
belonged to my grandfather, my father, and myself.
The mirrors and the dishes and plates were broken to
pieces.

"Sixty thousand bottles of wine were stolen from
the cellars of M. Piret, the wine merchant.

"To my own knowledge, in not one of the houses
left standing was the safe not broken open, or did not
show clear marks of attempted robbery.

"But why burden this report by recounting the per-
sonal misfortunes of the many citizens who have told
me their harrowing stories? The facts are all the
same, and what I have set out is enough to prove that
murder, arson, and pillage were systematically organ-
ised and carried out in cold blood, even when the bat-
tle was over."

The facts are indeed witnessed to by the Germans
themselves. "The civilian corpses littered everywhere
are a sight which defies description," writes an officer
of the 178th Saxon Regiment on Aug. 23rd, when the

[Map i]

133

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

butchery was done.® "In most cases shots at point-
blank range have carried away half their skull. Every
house along the whole valley has been turned upside
down, and the inhabitants dragged out of the most un-
likely hiding-places. The men have been shot, the
women and children placed in the convent. Shots
came from the convent, and it had a narrow escape
f r(Mn being set on fire. . . ."

"In the evening at lo o'clock," writes a private in
the same regiment on the same date,^^ "the first bat-
talion went down into the village that had been burnt
to the north of Dinant. Right at the entrance of the
village about 50 civilians lay dead ; they had been shot
for having fired on our troops from ambush. In the
course of the night many others were shot in the same
way, so that we could count more than 200. The wom-
en and children, lamp in hand, were obliged to watch
the horrible scene. We then ate our rice in the midst of
the corpses, for we had not tasted food since morning."

Across the Meuse the Saxons turned south, and,
keeping in touch with von Biilow on their right, went
forward by forced marches into France, still slaughter-
ing and devastating on their way. In the Canton of
Dinant '^'^ they destroyed 1,588 houses and killed 632

* Garnets, p. 22. "Bedier, p. 12.

" Onhaye, Waulsort: xx p. 95. Hasti^res-Lavaux : Mercier ; xx p. 95.
Hastiires-par-deU : xi pp. 93-4; xx p. 95.

[Map i]

134

HASTIERES'FAR'DELA, SURICE

civilians in all ; at Hastieres-par-dela^ in the Canton of
Beauraing^ they destroyed 66 and killed 18; in the
Canton of Florennes^^ 666 and 52. At Surice^ in this
canton, they shot 18 men in the sight of their mothers
and daughters and wives. There were five ecclesiastics
among them, and boys of sixteen and seventeen. "M.
Schmidt's little boy of fourteen," states a Belgian
witness, "was nearly put into the line — the soldiers
hesitated, but finally shoved him away in a brutal
fashion. At this moment I saw a young Grerman sol-
dier — this I vouch for — who was so struck with hor-
ror that great tears were dropping on to his tunic. He
did not wipe his eyes for fear of being seen by his oiB-
cer, but kept his head turned away." Those who were
not killed by the first volley were clubbed to death;
the corpses were plundered; the whole village was
sacked, and 130 houses out of 172 were burnt.

"At Villers-en-Fagne^^ in the Canton of Philippe-
ville^ writes the Saxon officer quoted above, "the in-
habitants had warned the French of our Grenadiers'
approach by a signal from the belfry. The enemy ar-
tillery had fired several shells, and wounded or killed
some Grenadiers. Thereupon the Hussars set fire to
the village, and the cure and other inhabitants were

° Monrille, Hermeton-sur-Meuse : xx p. 95. Anth6e : xx p. 95 ; Ger-
man White Book, App. 38. Stave. Surice: b 11; Reply p. 454; x p.
78; ad pp. 94-6; XX p. 95. Franchimont. Romedenne: xx p. 95.

[Map z]

THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

shot/' In the whole Canton of Philippeville the Ger-
mans burned 77 houses down; in the Canton of Cou-
vin ^^ they burned 298 houses and killed 6 civilians.
On the road from Philippeville to Mariembourg, in
this canton, the Gennan cavalry drove Belgian peas-
ants in front of them as a screen.^*

At Gue d'Hossus von Hansen's army entered France.
"Thank heaven," writes the Saxon officer on Aug.
26th,^^ "that for once in a way the divisional command
has intervened energetically against this incendiarism
and massacre of civilians. The charming village of
Gue d'Hossus appears to have been delivered to the
flames when entirely innocent. A military cyclist fell
off his machine, and this made his rifle go off. There-
upon the male inhabitants were simply thrown into
the flames. One hopes such horrors will not re-occur.
At Leffe about 2CX) were shot — there an example was
needed. It was inevitable that some innocent people
should have to suffer, but verification ought to be in-
sisted upon in cases where there is suspicion of guilt,
in order to put bounds to this indiscriminate shooting
of all the men."

"Village stormed and looted," writes another Ger-

^ Mariembourg. Dourbes. Frasnes. Couvin: Mercier; German
White Book, App. 42.

"gi5.
"Garnets, p. 31.

[Map i]

136

RETHEL, ECURY-LE'REPOS

man at Novion}^ "Monday, Aug. 31st. — ^We passed
through the town of Rethel^ where we had a two hours'
halt. Wine and champagne in abundance; we looted
with a will."

"Live like God at Rethel," writes the Saxon offi-
cer, ^'^ who arrived there on Sept. 1st. "On Sept. 2nd
the town is half destroyed by fire. . . . There is a
touch of superfluity about French comfort, but the in-
teriors of the houses were a sight to see. All the furni-
ture turned upside down, the mirrors bashed in. The
Vandals could have done no better. It is a stain on
our Army's honour. ... It lies heaviest on the troops
serving the line of communications, for they have the
time to pillage and destroy. Property worth millions
has been annihilated here. They did not even stop at
safes."

But here, as further west, the invasion was nearing
its term. The Saxons crossed the Aisne at Rethel, and
then, below Chalons, the Mame, and found themselves,
with the Prussian Guard on their right, in the open
plains of Champagne under the French artillery fire.
At Ecury-le-Repos^^^ in the Department of the Marne^
they pillaged houses and carried hostages away; at

"Bland pp. 121-3.
^ Carnets, p. 43 seqq,
*»Onc 98.

[Map 4]

LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

Lenharree^^^ on Sept. 7th, they assassinated the mayor;
but vengeance was at hand. ''This decisive victory has
cost terrible sacrifices," writes the Saxon officer after
the fighting on Sept. 8th. "The surgeons say the 178th
Regiment has about i,7CX) severely wounded, without
counting the dead. It was, after all, just hell. As for
officers, there are practically none left."

The illusion of victory died hard. "Brigade order
this evening," he writes again on Sept. 9th. " 'After
the results obtained to-day^ the Jfl.nd Infantry Division
is removed from the army formation and will be trans-
ferred to the north to be employed for other tactical
purposes J We are amazed and rack our brains. I
had all the sensations of a retreat when at six in the
evening our division, by the blood-red light of the sink-
ing sun, broke contact with the enemy. . . . We
passed again across that fearful field of fire, by Len-
harree, and through the imderwood where we had suf-
fered so terribly from the shells. . . ."

And thus the destroyers of Dinant fell back over
the Mame.

(iii) Through Luxembourg to Champagne.

To the left of the Saxons the Duke of Wiirtem-
berg's army marched through Luxembourg and crossed

"Five 30-4.

[Map 4]

138

BASTOGNE, ROSIERES, BIEVRE

the Meuse on the French side of the Franco-Belgian
frontier.

At Bastogne^^^ where this army broke into the BfiU
gian Province of Luxembourg after traversing the
Grand Duchy^ the Burgomaster was shot. At Rosi*
eres ^^ they shot 6 civilians, burned a number of houses,
and marched on, burning and killing in all the villages
on their route. At least 120 civilians were killed and
135 houses burnt by these troops in the Province of
Luxembourg ^^ ; in the Canton of Gedinne^ of the Prov-
ince of Namur^ they killed 12 and burned 399.^*
"The enemy had occupied the village of Bievre and
the edge of the wood behind it," wrote a German non-
commissioned officer on Aug. 23rd. "The 3rd Com-
pany advanced in the first line. We carried the vil-
lage and pillaged and burned nearly all the houses." ^*

On Aug. 24th they were in France, crossing the
Meuse at Sedan. "Lost a few men at Sedan," writes
one of them in his diary on that date.^^ "A long halt
at Launois in the afternoon. Completely looted the
stationmaster's empty house. . . . March on with

*Bryce pp. 171, 174-5-

"Reply p. 457; German V^hite Book, Apps. 11-2.

"Libin: viii § 2. Villance, Maissin, Anloy, Neufchateau, Bertrix:

viii §§ 3-4-
*• Bourscigne-Vieille. Louette-St. Pierre. Willersce. Bievrt, Allc.
"Bedier p. 22.
•"Bland pp. 177-8.

[Map i]

LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

many drunk." At Rethel and above it they crossed
the Aisne, and broke into Champagne with the Saxons
on their right.
By Sept. 3rd they were at Somme-py^ in the Depart-

tnent of the Marne. "A horrible blood-bath; the vil-
lage burnt down; the French thrown into the blazing
houses ; civilians burnt with the rest." ^* At Suippes ^^
they burned 84 houses by the usual methods, pillaged
all but two (which belonged to a Grerman immigrant
and his father-in-law), violated a girl of thirteen, and
made an attempt on a woman of seventy-two. At St.
Etienne *® they burned 24 houses out of 53 ; at Lepine^
g.^ At Chalons their right flank columns crossed the
Marne and pressed on south along the western bank
of the river, keeping abreast with the left flank, which
remained on the further side.

West of the Marne they tortured a woman at Mai-
sons-en-'Champagne ^^ ; burned down houses with their
special incendiary apparatus at Blacy '^ and Glannes ^^
and Huiron '* ; and carried the cure of Sompuis ^*

"* Bland p. 155.

"One 82-9.

"■One 94-7.

*Onc 63-5.

*Five 2, 37.

•*Five I, 57.

"One 73.

"One 77.

•*One 102-3; Five 1-6.

[Map 43
140

SOMME-PY, SUIPPES, SOMPUIS

into captivity with a number of his parishioners.
The fate of these hostages is described by the
French Commission in their summarising report ^^ : —

"Abbe Oudin, an old man of seventy-three, af-
flicted with asthma, was arrested and locked up in his
cellar without food till the following day, with his
maid, Mile. Cote, aged sixty-seven, and MM. Mou-
geot, Amould, Poignet, and Cuchard. On the 8th they
were taken to Coole, where they had to pass the night
— still without food. Then they were marched to
Chalons-sur-Marne. On the way to Chalons the aged
priest, who had been belaboured with rifle-butts and
reduced to complete exhaustion, was unable to go fur-
ther, so they put him with his maid on a butcher's
cart, which the other prisoners had to drag along. . . .

"From Chalons they were removed to Suippes, and
taken into a house to be examined. The abbe, who
could scarcely stand, was seized by the shoulder and
roughly shaken by an officer, who questioned him in
an insulting tone. He came out from the examination
dazed and tottering, and was then made to spend the
whole night in the rain, in the courtyard of a school.

"On the 11th they reached Vouziers, and were
kept there till the 14th in a stable, where they had
to lie on sodden sawdust. The 13th was a particularly

"Tive pp. 8-9.

[Map 4]

141

LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

atrocious day. Soldiers, especially officers, came in
large numbers with the deliberate purpose of amusing
themselves by toraienting the cure. They spat in his
face, flogged him with their horse-whips, threw him in
the air and then let him fall on the ground, kicked
him or slashed him with their spurs all over the arms,
thighs, and chest.

"After these abominable outrages M. Oudin was
reduced to such a condition of weakness that his groans
were hardly audible. On the 15th he was taken to
Sedan, and in a hospital there he almost immediately
succumbed. Mougeot, one of his companions in mis-
ery, who had also been beaten about the body and had
several ribs broken, was removed about the same time
to the Fabert Barracks. There, as a witness describes
it, the Germans threw him on the straw like a dog and
left him to die untended.

"Mile. Cote was also the victim of moi^trous cruel-
ties in the course of this terrible journey. Before
reaching Tannay she was tied to a carriage-wheiel. At
the halting place the soldiers rolled her in the mud,
struck her brutally, and dragged her by the hair. Next
they pushed her into the church, where four of them
threw her down on. the altar steps, caught hold of her
again, and threw her among the benches in the

nave. . . .'*

[Map 4]

142

AUVE, M ARSON, HEILTZ-LE-MAURUPT

East of the Mame they burned Somme-Tourbe^^
and Auve^'^ — at Somme-Tourbe the church escaped;
at Auve it was burnt with the rest, and a woman over
eighty years old inside it. About 130 houses were
burnt at Auve out of 150 in the village.

They burned many houses at Poix.^^ At Marson *®
they murdered a civilian, exacted a war contribution
of 3,000 francs, and on two occasions set the place on
fire. They murdered another civilian at Possesse.^^
They burned down Heiltz4e-Maurupt^^ systemati-
cally on Sept. 6th. On the 8th they broke into a girl's
room and violated her at Jussecourt-Minecourt}^
From the 6th to the 8th they pillaged Heiltz-
I'Eveque,*^ keeping the inhabitants confined in the
church. At Etrepy ** they clubbed a woman of eighty-
three to death, and were so thorough in their incendiar-
ism that 63 families out of 70 were left without a roof
over their heads. At Bignicourt'Sur-Saulx^^ they
burned houses ( n people were suffocated in a cellar)

"One 74.

" One 75-6 ; Fire 47.

"Five 38.

"Five 49.

*'Five 27-9.

"One 66.

**One 120.

^•Fivc 38-9.

**Fivc 52-3.

*• One 92-3 ; Five 48.

[Map 4]
143

LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

and carried away hostages — ^women and children as
well as men. At Lisse *® they burned 42 houses out of
64. At Chang y^'^ they shot a civilian for saying:
"Here come the Prussians." At Merlaut *® they killed
two — one by shooting him, and the other, an old man
of seventy, by dragging him across country at the tail
of a horse. At Vitry-en-Perthois *® they violated two
women, one of whom was eighty-nine years old and
died of the effects. But Vitry was the last town in
France where the Duke of Wiirtemberg's araiy com-
mitted its abominations, for here, at the junction of
the Marae and the Omain, it suffered its defeat.

(iv) Through Luxembourg to the Argonne.

This was what the Duke of Wiirtemberg did in
Luxembourg and Champagne; but Luxembourg was
also ravaged by the Crown Prince of Prussia,*^ who

**Fivc 44-6.

*' Five 7-8.

"Five 9-1 1.

*One 118-9.

"Arlon: viii § 2. Houdemont: viii §§ 3-4; White Book App. 18.
Rulles: viii § 3; White Book, App. 18; Reply p. 456. Thibesart:
White Book, Apps. 25-6. Rossignol: viii §§ 3-4; White Book, Apps.
23, 28; Reply pp. 135, 459-460. Les Bulles: viii § 3; White Book,
Apps. 23, 28; Reply pp. 459, 462. Etalle: viii §§ 3-4; Mercier.
Ansart: viii § 3; White Book, Apps. 19-27. Tintigny: viii §§ 3-4;
Mercier; White Book, Apps. i8, 20-25. Jamoigne: viii § 3; White
Book, Apps. 19 29-30; Reply p. 458. Meyen: viii § 3. Izel: viii § 4.
St L^ger: viii §§ 3-4. Musson, Baranzy: viii § 3. Mussy: viii § 3;

[Map 4]
144

ARLON, ROSSIGNOL, ETALLE

passed across it on the Duke of Wiirtemberg's left,
forced the Meuse below Verdun, and penetrated the
Argonne.

At Arlon^ near the sources of the Semoy, the Crown
Prince sacked 47 houses and extorted, a war contribu-
tion of 100,000 francs. At Rulles he burned 28
houses. At Rossignol he burned the whole village.
One hundred and five of the inhabitants of Rossignol
were carried away to Arion, and shot in public at the
railway station in batches of ten — one of them was a
woman, and she was shot last, after having to witness
the execution of the rest. At les BuUes several civil-
ians were shot, and the church and 34 houses were
burnt down. At Etalle 30 houses were burnt, 1 1 civil-
ians shot, and the cure hanged in the church; at Tin-
tigny and Ansart 90 were shot, including the cure.
Only three houses at Tintigny were left standing. At
Baranzy only four houses were left, and the cure was
shot with two of his parishioners. At Ethe 197 were
shot. "In the night," writes a German diarist, "Ethe
was entirely in flames, and it was a magnificent sight
from a distance. The next day, Aug. 23rd, Ethe was
in ruins, and we looted everything that was left in the
way of provisions. We carried off quantities of bacon,
eggs, bread, jam, tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and, above

Mercier. Signeulx, Bleid: viii § 3. Ethe: viii §§ 3-4; Reply p. 454;
Bland p. 114. Latour: viii § 4; Merder.

[Map 4]

LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

all, wine for our regiment." At Latour^ beyond Ethe,
on the way to the French frontier, they shot the cure,
his retired predecessor, and 69 other civilians. In
these districts of Belgian Luxembourg which were tra-
versed by the Crown Prince's army 523 civilians are
known to have been massacred; and it is reckoned by
the Belgian Commission that in the whole province a
thousand were massacred altogether, and more than
3,cx)0 houses burnt, by the Crown Prince and the Duke
of Wurtemberg between them.

Passing the Meuse below the forts of Verdun, the
Crown Prince carried the German Terror into the Ar-
gonne. Clermont ^^ was the first town in the Argonne
which he destroyed; its fate has been described by the
French Commissioners in their summarising report on
the Department of the Meuse *^ : —

"The little town of Clermont-en-Argonne, on the
slope of a picturesque hill in the middle of a pleasant
landscape, used to be visited every year by numerous
tourists. On Sept. 4th, at night, the 121st and 122nd
Wurtemberg Regiments entered the place, breaking
down the doors of the houses and giving themselves
up to unrestrained pillage, which continued during the
whole of the next day. Towards midday a soldier set

"One 157-9.
"One pp. i9-2a

[Map 4]

146

TINTIGNY, ETHE, LATOUR, CLERMONT

iire to the dwelling of a clockmaker by deliberately up-
setting the contents of an oil lamp which he used for
making coffee. An inhabitant, M. Montemach, at
once ran to fetch the town fire-engine, and asked an
officer to lend him men to work it. Brutally refused
and threatened with a revolver, he renewed his re-
quest to several other officers, with no greater success.
Meanwhile, the Germans continued to burn the town,
making use of sticks on the top of which torches were
fastened. While the houses blazed the soldiers poured
into the church, which stood by itself on the height,
and danced there to the sound of the organ. Then,
before leaving, they set fire to it with grenades as well
as with vessels full of inflammable liquid, containing
wicks.

"After the burning of Clermont, the body of the
Mayor of Vauquois, M. Poinsignon (which was com-
pletely carbonised), and that of a young boy of eleven,
who had been shot at point-blank range, were found.

"When the fire was out pillage recommenced in the
houses which the flames had spared. Furniture carried
off from .the house of M. Desforges and stuffs stolen
from the shop of M. Nordmann, a draper, were heaped
together in motor-cars. An army doctor (medecin-ma-
jor) took possession of all the medical appliances in
the hospital, and an officer of superior rank, after hav-
ing put up a notice forbidding pillage on the entrance

[Map 4]

147

LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

door of the house of M. Lebondidier, had a great part
of the furniture of this house carried away on a car-
riage, intending it, as he boasted without any shame,
for the adornment of his own villa."

At SL Andre ^^ the Germans herded the inhabitants
into a bam, and shot a man who had stayed behind to
watch over the dead body of his wife — she had been
killed the day before by a shell. They burned down
two-thirds of Bulainville ^^ with their special appara-
tus. At Nubecourt ^^ they carried away the cure, and
he was never seen again. Their conduct at Triau-
court ^^ is described in the French G)mmissioners' Re-
port ^'^ : —

"At Triaucourt the Germans gave themselves up to
the worst excesses. Angered, doubtless, by the remark
which an officer had addressed to a soldier, against
whom a young girl of nineteen, Mile. Helene Proces,
had made complaint on account of the indecent treat-
ment to which she had been subjected, they burned the
village and made a systematic massacre of the inhabi-
tants. They began by setting fire to the house of an

"One 170.
■*One 140-1.
"One 168.
■•One 151-6.
■'One pp. 18-9.

[Map 4]
148

ST. ANDRE, BULAINVILLE, TRIAUCOURT

inoffensive householder, M. Jules Gand, and by shoot-
ing this unfortunate man just as he was leaving his
house to escape the flames ; then they dispersed amongst
the houses in the streets, firing their rifles on every side.
A young man of seventeen, Greorges Lecourtier, who
tried to escape, was shot. M. Alfred Lallemand suf-
fered the same fate; he was pursued into the kitchen
of his fellow-citizen, Tautelier, and murdered there,
while Tautelier received three bullets in his hand.

"Fearing, not without reason, for their lives. Mile.
Proces, her mother, her grandmother of seventy-one,
and her old aunt of eighty-one. Mile. Laure Menne-
hand, tried with the help of a ladder to cross the trellis
which separates their garden ffom a neighbouring
property. The yoimg girl alone was able to reach the
other side and to avoid death by hiding in the cab-
bages. As for the other women, they were struck down
by rifle shots. The village cure collected the brains of
Mile. Mennehand on the ground on which they were
strewn, and had the bodies carried into Proces' house.
During the following night the Germans played the
piano near the bodies.

"While the carnage raged, the fire rapidly spread
and devoured 35 houses. An old man of seventy, Jean
Lecourtier, and a child of two months, perished in
the flames. M. Igier, who was trying to save his cattle,
was pursued for 300 metres by soldiers who fired at him

[Map 4]

149

LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

ceaselessly. By a miracle this man had the good for-
tune not to be wounded, but five bullets went through
his trousers. When the cure Viller expressed his in-
dignation at the treatment inflicted upon his parish to
the Duke of Wiirtemberg, who was lodged in the vil-
lage, the latter replied: 'What would you have? We
have bad soldiers just as you have.'

"In the same commune an attempt at rape was made
which was unsuccessful by reason of the obstinate and
courageous resistance of the victim; three Germans
made the attempt on Mme. D., forty-seven years old.
Further, an old woman of seventy-five, Mme. Mau-
poix, was kicked so violently that she died a few days
afterwards. While some of the soldiers were ill-treat-
ing her, others were ransacking her wardrobes."

At Vaubecourt ^^ they burned 106 houses out of 222.
At Lisle-en-Barrois ®® they shot two civilians. At Giv-
ry-en-Argonne^^ a Grerman officer threatened to bum
the village if the mayor's assessor did not hand over
to him a girl of fifteen who had excited his lust — ^the
outrage was only averted by the arrival of French
troops. Sommeilles ®^ was completely bumt on Sept.
6th. "When the incendiarism started," states the

"One 147-150.
"One 160.
~One 100.
•*One 133-8.

[Map 4]
150

riLLERS'AUX'VENTS, REVIGNY

Mayor, "M. and Mme. Adnot (the latter about sixty
years old), Mme. X. (thirty-five or thirty-six years
old), whose husband is with the colours, and Mme.
X.'s four children all took refuge in the Adnots' cel-
lars. They were there assassinated under atrocious
circumstances. The two women were violated. When
the children shrieked, one of them had its head cut oflf,
two others one arm, and the mother one of her breasts,
while everyone in the cellar was massacred. The chil-
dren were respectively eleven, five, four, and one and
a half years old."

At Louppy-le-Chateau ^^ they violated three wOTien
and two girls — the eldest of the women was seventy-
one years old, the girls were thirteen and eight. At
Villers-aux-VentSj^^ on Sept. 7th, they stripped a man
naked and shot him in a field. On the 8th they burned
the village to the ground, so systematically that not
a single house was left. At Laimont^ they carried
oflF seven hostages, who never returned. At Vassin-
court^^ where the French Army turned on them and
compelled them to retreat, they burned, in rancour,
the houses left standing by the shells. At Revigny •*
they burned two-thirds of the houses. At Sermaize4eS'

"One 1 61-7.

"One 143-6; Five i39-i4a

••One 169.

•Five 135-8.

"One 127-132.

[Map 4]
^5?

LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

Bains ®^ they burned 760 out of 800. The uicendiar-
ism at Sermaize and Revigny was perhaps more elab-
orate in its methods and more effective in its results
than any other piece of material devastation which the
Germans perpetrated in Belgium or France. The wil-
derness of rubble with gaunt chimneys rising out of it,
and, here and there, a fragment of wall, remains as
the Crown Prince's monument in France, marking his
limitless will for evil at the limits of his power.

•'One 78-81.

[Map 4]

152

VI. THE RAID INTO LORRAINE.

(i) From the Frontier to St. Mihiel.

The Bavarian army which crossed the frontier on a
line between Thionville and the Vosges was intended
to take the fortress of Verdun in the flank and rear,
force a passage south of it across the Meuse, and join
hands with the Crown Prince in the valley of the
Mamc, as the Saxons joined von Biilow, between
Meuse and Sambre, round the southern flank of Na-
mur. But the Bavarians were checked at an earlier
stage in their invasion than the armies on their right.
The howitzers which had shattered the forts of Na-
mur made no impression on the field-works of Verdun
— thrown up at a week's notice, when the fall of Na-
mur had shown the weakness of the old system and
the possibility of improvisation. Verdun remained a
barrier between the Bavarians in the Woevre and the
Crown Prince in the Argonne. Instead of passing the
Meuse, they seized, too late for use, the single bridge-
head of St. Mihiel. Pont-a-Mousson held out against
them, almost within range of the guns of Metz, and
Nancy was never in their hands. Yet though they

[Frontispiece]

153

FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

failed of their strategic aim and were held up nearer
the frontier than any other of the invading armies, the
outrage and devastation they committed in the few
square miles of French territory which they overran
was not surpassed by their companions who marched
from Liege or Luxembourg to the Mame through the
heart of Belgium and France.

Audun-le'-Romain^^^ in the Department of the
Meurthe and Moselle^ the first village in French terri-
tory on the direct road from Thionville to Verdun, was
occupied by the Germans on Aug. 4th, and for seven-
teen days the invaders confined themselves to requi-
sitions and threats. But on Aug. 21st the German
advance-guards fell back in disorder eastwards through
the village, and the Grermans in garrison there ran
amok.

"They began to set fire to the houses," state the
French Commission,*® "and to fire into the windows
and at the inhabitants. Seven women (mentioned by
name) were wounded, and the foreman roadmender,
M. Chary, was shot dead as he came out of the church.
M. Martin, agriculturist, was dragged out of his house,
received three bullets, and fell dead at his door, before
the eyes of his wife and daughters. The Uhlans fell

"One 367; Five 165-176.
• Fiv€ pp. 26-7.

[Map 4]

A UDUN'LE-ROMAIN

upon the body and stabbed it with their lances, while
one of them clove the head with his sabre. A young
officer shot down M. Somen, the ex-mayor, with his
revolver, when the victim was just shutting his bam
door. M. Michel, the mayor's assessor, and M.
(Edouard) Bernard tried to see him, and for this they
were taken, bound, to Ludelange, and shot there the
following day.

"Next day, Aug. 22nd, there was an engagement
between the invaders and some French troops. The
enemy was at first compelled to retire, but soon re-
turned in force and occupied the village once more.
Six men (mentioned by name) and two Italians were
then massacred in their homes or in the public streets.
One of them — ^Thiery — was only eighteen years old,
and his mother, who was present at the execution, was
on her knees, imploring mercy for him, while he was
being shot.

"During these two days of slaughter almost all the
houses were burtit down, not only at Audun-le-Ro-
main, but in the neighbouring commune of Malavillers
as well. At Audun there were about 400 houses, and
hardly a dozen of them are left.'*

There were even worse outrages at Jarny^^ another
village near the frontier, but further south, on the road
to. Verdun from Metz: —

'm^"^^^^^^^^^^

'•Five 178-184.

[Map 4]

FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

"On Sept. 25th one of the many Italians working
in the local factories shot his dog, and the Germans
immediately pretended that he had fired at them. This
was quite sufficient to provoke outrages of the worst
kind. A fire was immediately started which consumed
twenty-two houses and the church steeple, while the
soldiers roared out songs, to the accompaniment of a
pianola, in an inn beside the church. While the house
of Mile. Anna Frangois was burning, the tax-collector,
M. Daval, noticed five Bavarians in front of the build-
ing, rifle in hand, and — to use his description — in the
attitude of a sportsman waiting for a hare to start
from its form. The incendiaries, in fact, often be-
haved in this way, giving their victims only the choice
of being burnt alive or shot. Several people met their
death under these tragic circumstances, and it was thus
that the members of the Perignon family perished —
father, mother, and son were struck down by bullets
as soon as they left their blazing house. The daugh-
ter, Mme. Leroy, escaped death, but had her arm frac-
tured by a bullet.

"The same day other murders took place. For no
reason whatever, M. Foumier, a cafe proprietor, and
his nephew were arrested at home, carried off in a
motor-car, and both shot, six hundred yards from their
house. A Bavarian soldier of the 4th Infantry Regi-
ment levelled his rifle at M. Lhermitte, as he was go-

[Map 4]

156

AUDUN'LE'ROMAINy JARNY

ing indoors, and killed him. He then opened the
breech of his rifle to extract the empty cartridge and
quietly got into a regimental cart.

"Mme. Berard, the wife of a soldier on active serv-
ice, was ordered to give some men of the 66th and 68th
Bavarian Regiments something to drink. She had al-
ready drawn a large number of buckets of water for
them, when an ofBcer— or a non-commissioned officer
— considering that she had done enough, commanded
her to go back home. As the Germans were firing at
the house, Mme. Berard hid herself in the cellar with
her three children — ^Jean, aged six; Maurice, aged two;
Jeanne, aged nine — and the Aufiero family. But soon
she noticed petrol being poured through the ventila-
tor, foimd herself suddenly surrounded by flames, and
rushed out wildly, carrying one of the little boys un-
der each arm, while her little daughter and young Bea- .
trice Aufiero ran beside her, clinging to her dress.

"Just as the party were crossing the stream called
the Rougeva4, a few steps from the house, the Bavar-
ians opened fire on the fugitives. Little Jean was
struck in the thigh, low down on the leg, and in the
breast, and cried out: 'Oh! mother, I am hurt!' He
died immediately. Beatrice Aufiero received a bullet
which almost completely severed her right arm; and
her sister Angele, a child of nine, who was following

[Map 4]

157

FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

close behind her, was wounded, not quite so badly, in
the calf.

"Mme. Berard was then joined by Mme. Aufiero,
and reached the road, where an awful sight met their
eyes. About twenty yards away the Germans were
executing Aufiero, whom they had brought out of the
cellar. One of them, turning to the wife of the man
they were about to execute, said to her with a grin:
'Just watch us shoot your MannF — 'Oh! my poor
Come!* she screamed. — 'Shut your mouth!' they re-
plied.

"The two women and the children were then taken
to the meadow of Pont-de-PEtang, where a general
ordered them to be shot. But Mme. Berard flung her-
self on her knees and begged mercy, crying and
clutching his hands, till he consented to spare them.
One of the officers present pointed to the corpse of
little Jean, to whom the mother still clung, and said :
'There's one who will never fight against our men later
on.' Next day the unhappy woman, who had spent the
night in a place called the Zeller Barriere, was told that
she must dispose of her child's remains as quickly as
possible. Finding nobody to make a coffin, she pro-
cured from the canteens a couple of cases in which rab-
bits had been packed, and nailed them end to end.
She then placed the body inside and went to the end
of the garden to dig the grave. A Bavarian officer

[Map 4]

158

JARNY, FRESNES, COHERES

had the shamelessness to ask her to sell him — as a sou-
venir, no doubt — a medallion containing a photograph
of the little murdered boy which she wore on her neck.

"On the 26th the Grermans continued the slaughter.
M. Genot, the mayor, Abbe Vouaux, and MM. Fidler
and Bemier, who had been arrested the day before,
were lined up along a fence behind the Blanchon inn,
and shot on the word of command. Besides these vic-
tims, M. Plessis, a retired gamekeeper, was dragged
out of his house and killed in front of it, and many
Italians were put to death.

"It need hardly be said that at Jamy, just as every-
where else, pillage was the accompaniment of murder
and incendiarism. The soldiers carried off ornaments
and objects of worship from the sacristy of the parish
church; and banners, altar cloths, and even grave
cloths were found afterwards in the streets and fields."

Fresnes^^ in the Woevre, was occupied by the Ba-
varians for six days, and on Sept. 15th, when they
evacuated it, they shot the acting mayor and his son,
set their house on fire, and threw the son's wife and
another woman alive into the flames. They burned
50 houses at Fresnes altogether, besides a girls' school
and the town hall. The houses were plundered sys-

*^ Bland pp. 334-5.

[Map 4]

FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

tematically before they were burnt; the loot was car-
ried off in motor-cars to Germany, and 58 families at
Fresnes were left without a home.

At Combres^^ a few miles further south, on the east-
ern heights of the Meuse, the whole population was
dragged out on the morning of Sept. 22nd and herded
on to a hillside as a screen for the Bavarians against
the French fire. Twelve hours later, at dusk, they
were herded back, and given an hour to collect the
barest necessaries from their (already plundered)
homes. Then they were locked up in the church for
the night, and at 4 o'clock next morning herded out
again on to the hillside for a second day. After that
they were confined in the church for five days consecu-
tively, till finally the men were separated from the rest
and transferred by slow stages to the German intern-
ment camp at Zwickau — ^half-starved on the way and
exhibited to the German populace at every station
where the train made a halt. The women and children
were kept in the church night and day for a month,
with disgusting restrictions on sanitation which pro-
duced an outbreak of dysentery and croup.

The Germans left their trail in the Woevre from
north to south. "At houptnont^^ writes a diarist on
Sept. 5th,''® "a fine country house; beautiful room with

"Two pp. 13-5 (5 centime edition).
"Bland pp. 197-8.

[Map 4]

160

LOUPMONT, NOMENY

Persian carpet; on carpet slaughtered, sow; in the bed
sucking-pig, also slaughtered ; blood running down the
stairs."

Loupmont lies a few miles south-east of St. Mihiel,
where the Bavarians reached the Meuse and were
brought to a stand.

(ii) From the Frontier to Luneville.

Further east, the Bavarian centre never reached the
Meuse at all. Pont-a-Mousson^'^^ on the Moselle, was
bombarded year in and year out from the beginning
of the war, and by Nov. loth, 1914, fourteen of the
civilian inhabitants had already been killed, but the
Bavarians never entered the town, and it escaped the
horrors perpetrated by the 2nd and 4th Bavarian In-
fantry Regiments at Nomeny '^^ on the Seille.

"We experienced real horror," state the French Com-
mission, "when we found ourselves before the lament-
able ruins of Nomeny. With the exception of some
few houses which still stood near the railway station
in a spot separated by the Seille from the principal
group of buildings, there remains of this little town
only a succession of broken and blackened walls in the
midst of ruins, in which may be seen here and there
the bones of a few animals partly charred and the car-

^*One 173.

'*Onc 174-198; Bland pp. 200-215.

[Map 4]
161

FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

bonised remain§ of human bodies. The rage of a mad-
dened soldiery has been unloosed there without pity.

"Nomeny, on account of its proximity to the fron-
tier, received from the beginning of the war the visits
of Greraian troopers from time to time. Skirmishes
took place in its neighbourhood, and on Aug. 14th, in
the courtyard of the farm de la Borde, which is a
little distance off, a German soldier killed by a rifle
shot without any motive the young farm servant Nich-
olas Michel, aged seventeen.

"On Aug. 20th, when the inhabitants sought refuge
in the cellars from the bombardment, the Grermans
came up after having fired upon each other by mistake,
and entered the town towards midday.

"According to the account given by one of the in-
habitants, the German officers asserted that the French
were torturing the wounded by cutting off their limbs
and plucking out their eyes. They were then in a state
of terrible excitement. That day and part of the next
the German soldiers gave themselves over to the most
abominable excesses, sacking, burning, and massacring
as they went. After they had carried off from the
houses everything which seemed worth taking away,
and after they had despatched to Metz the booty of
their pillage, they set fire to the houses with torches,
pastilles of compressed powder, and petrol, which they
carried in receptacles placed on little carts. Rifle shots

[Map 5]

162

NOMENY

were fired on every side ; the unhappy inhabitants, who
had been driven from the cellars before the firing, were
shot down like game — ^some in their dwellings and
others in the public streets.

"MM. Sanson, Pierson, Lallemand, Adam Jeanpi-
erre, Meunier, Schneider, Raymond, Duponcel, and
JHazotte, father and son, were killed by rifle shots in
the streets. M. Killian, seeing himself threatened by
a sabre stroke, protected his neck with his hand. He
had three fingers cut off and his throat gashed. An
old man, aged eighty-six, M. Petit jean, who was seated
in his armchair, had his skull smashed by a German
shot. A soldier showed the corpse to Mme. Bertrand,
saying : 'Do you see that pig there ?' M. Chardin, town
councillor, who was acting-mayor, was required to fur-
nish a horse and carriage. He had promised to do all
he could to obey, when he was killed by a rifle shot.
M. Prevot, seeing the Bavarians breaking into a chem-
ist's shop of which he was caretaker, told them that
he was the chemist and that he would give them any-
thing they wanted, but three rifle shots rang out and
he fell, with one deep sigh. Two women who were
with him ran away and were pursued to the neigh-
bourhood of the railway station, being beaten all the
way with the butts of rifles, and they saw many bodies
heaped together in the station garden and on the road.

"Between 3 and 4 in the afternoon the Germans

[Map 5]

163

FROM THE FRONTIER TO LVNEVILLE

entered the butcher's shop of Mme. Francois. She was
then coming out of her cellar with her boy Stub and
an employee named Contal. As soon as Stub reached
the threshold of the entrance to the doot he fell se-
verely wounded by a rifle shot. Then O^ntal, who
rushed into the street, was immediately murdered.
Five minutes afterwards, as Stub was still groaning,,
a soldier leant over him and finished him oflF with a
blow of a hatchet on the back.

"The most tragic incident in this horrible scene oc-
curred in the house of M. Vasse, who had collected a
number of people in his cellar in the Faubourg de
Nancy. Towards 4 o'clock about fifty soldiers rushed
into the house, beat in the door and windows, and set
it on fire. The refugees then made an effort to flee,
but they were struck down one after the other as they
came out. M. Mentre was murdered first; then his
son Leon fell with his little sister, aged eight, in his
arms. As he was not killed outright, the muzzle of
a rifle-barrel was thrust against his head and his brains
blown out. Then it was the turn of the Kieffer fam-
ily. The mother was wounded in the arm and shoul-
der. The father and a little boy aged ten and a little
girl aged three were shot. The murderers went on fir-
ing on them after they had fallen. Kieffer, stretched
on the ground, received another bullet in the forehead,

and his son had the top of his head blown off by a

[Map 5]

164

NOMENY, NANCY

•

shot. Last of all M^ Strieffert and one of Vasse's sons
were murdered, while Mme. Mentre received three bul-
lets, one in the left leg, another in the arm on the same
side, and one on her forehead, which was only grazed.
M. Guillaume was dragged into the street and there
found dead. Simonin, a young girl of seventeen, came
out last from the cellar with her sister Jeanne, aged
three. The latter had her elbow almost carried off by
a bullet. The elder girl flung herself on the groimd
and pretended to be dead, remaining for five minutes
in terrible anguish. A soldier gave her a kick, crying
'Kaput!'

"An officer arrived at the end of this butchery, or-
dered the women who were still alive to get up, and
shouted to them 'Go to France!'

"While all these people were being massacred, oth-
ers, according to an expression used by an eyewitness,
were driven like sheep into the fields under the threat
of immediate execution. The cure, in particular, owed
his escape from being shot to extraordinary circum-
stances."

At least 50 civilians were killed at Nomeny — that
number are known by name, and the list is probably
incomplete. "At 5 o'clock," writes a soldier of the 8th
Bavarian Regiment, "we were ordered by the officer
in command to shoot all the male inhabitants of No-

[Map 5]

165

FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

•

meny and raze the town to the ground, because the
inhabitants were foolishly attempting to stop the Ger-
man troops' advance by force of arms. We broke into
the houses and dragged off all who resisted, to shoot
them according to martial law. Houses not destroyed
already by the French artillery or our own were set
oh fire by us, so that nearly the whole town was re-
duced to ashes. It is a terrible sight when helpless
women and children are reduced to utter destitution
and driven forth into France."

South of Nomeny, Nancy^^ like Pont-a-Mousson,
escaped with a bombardment — the official list of civil-
ian victims over a period of many months is given in
the fifth volume of the French Commission's Reports
— and there was no point west of Luneville where the
Bavarians reached the Meurthe. They bore down in
strength upon Luneville from the north, burning and
killing on a broad front as they advanced.

Brin^ the first village on the French side of the
frontier, was plundered and burnt. At Erbevzller'^^
the male inhabitants were arrested, threatened with
death, and locked up in a bam, on the pretext that
German sentries had been shot at by one of them. "I
am not certain that it was these men who fired," the

"One 171-a; Five 141 -3.
"One 370; BUnd p. 198.
"One 3S7-8.

[Map s]

REMEREVILLE, MAIXE, CREVIC

German officer confided to a woman of Erbeviller the
same evening, "and I will let them go to-morrow morn-
ing if you can pay me immediately a thousand francs."
The ransom was paid, and the receipt which the officer
signed for it is in the French Commissioners' hands J®

Remereville^^ was plimdered and burnt systemati-
cally on Sept. 7th. A hundred and six houses were
bumt here, and 29, including the Mairie, at Courbes-
saux^^^ where the Bavarians fired on an inhabitant who
tried to extinguish the flames. Thirty-five were bumt
at Drouville^^ and 36 at Maixe.^^ At Maixe, also, 9
men and 1 woman were massacred. The woman was
shot in a cellar; the men were killed in various ways
— one was bumt alive in his house, while his wife was
kept at a distance by force. At Crevic ®* the Germans
took especial pleasure in burning the house belonging
to General Liautey, who is a native of the place. They
burned 75 other houses here as well, and killed 3 in-
habitants, one at least of whom was burnt alive. At
Sommerviller^^ they shot two old men aged seventy
and sixty-five, and looted the shops. At DeuxviUe ^^

"One 358.

*"Onc 350-3*

"One 356.

"One 354-5.

"One 289-298.

"One 279-283: Five 162-4. •

"One 319-322.

"One 284-7.

[Map 5]

167

FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

they burned about 15 houses, carried oflF the mayor and
cure as hostages, and shot them at Crion on Aug. 25th.
At Hudiviller *^ they shot a man in cold blood, in the
sig^t of his fifteen-year-old son. At Vitrimont^ on
the north-western outskirts of Luneville, they shot a
man of sixty-nine on Aug. 24th, two days after their
first entry, and burned 32 houses on Sept. 6th, when
they passed throu^ the village again in their retreat.

Other Bavarian columns descended on Limeville by
parallel routes to the east. At Arracourt^^ where these
crossed the frontier, they shot a civilian and burned 5
houses. Their officers plundered and defiled the CMr
teau de Bauzemont^^ — staff officers' wives were ob-
served removing the loot in motor-cars, and when the
French troops returned they found that the floors and
beds had been carefully covered with filth. At Ein-
ville ®^ the Bavarians murdered four civilians — one of
them after brutal torments. "They led him past our
house," states a witness®^; "his nose had been almost
hacked off, his eyes were haggard, and he seemed to
have aged ten years in a quarter of an hour. A high
officer came up and said something in German, and

■'One 342.
"One 359-360.
"One 368-9.
•°One 299-300.
•*Onc 309-318.
•"One 315.

[Map 5]

j68

BAUZEMONT, EINVILLE, CHANTEHEUX

ei^t soldiers led the prisoner away to his fate. Ten
minutes later I saw them return without him, and one
of them said in French : 'He died before . . .' '* — ^be-
fore what refinement of torture will never be known.
In the course of an action with the French the Bavar-
ians forced the Mayor of Einville to find civilians to
bury the dead. Three of those impressed were wound-
ed and one killed while engaged on this task. The
mayor himself, with his assessor and another inhabi-
tant, was carried off as a hostage on Sept. I2th, when
the Bavarians evacuated the place, and was confined
for six weeks in a Grerman prison. At the farm of Re-
monville^^ near Einville, four civilians were killed.
The bodies of two of them were recovered later; both
the heads had been cut off, and one of them bashed in.
At Bonviller ®* the Bavarians burned 26 houses. At
J olivet ^^ they shot an inhabitant, plundered the place,
and sent off their loot in waggons before they retired.
At Chanteheux^^ they passed the Vezouse, and their
outrages here are summarised in the French Commis-
sion's Report: —

"The village of Chanteheux, situated quite close to
Luneville, was not spared either. The Bavarians, who

"One 317-8.
•*Onc 306-8.
"One 304.-5.
"•One 245-253.

[Map 5]
169

FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

occupied it from Aug. 22nd to Sept. 1 2th, burned there
20 houses in the customary manner and massacred 8
persons on Aug. 25th, MM. Lavenne, Toussaint, Par-
mentier and Bacheler, who were killed, the first three
by rifle shots, the fourth by two shots and a blow with
a bayonet; young Schneider, aged twenty-three, who
was murdered in a hamlet of the commime ; M. Wing-
erstmann and his grandson, whose deaths we have re-
corded in setting out the crimes committed at Lime-
ville; lastly, M. Reeb, aged sixty-two, who certainly
died as the result of the ill-treatment which he suf-
fered. This man had been taken as hostage with some
forty-two of his fellow-citizens, who were kept for
thirteen days. After having received terrible blows
from the butt of a rifle in his face and a bayonet wound
in his side, he continued to follow the column, although
he lost much blood and his face was so bruised that
he was almost unrecognisable, when a Bavarian, with-
out any reason, gave him a great wound by throwing
a wooden pail at his forehead. Between Henamenil
and Bures his companions saw that he was no longer
with them; no doubt he fell by the way.

"If this unhappy man was to suffer the most cruel
martyrdom of all, the hostages taken with him in the
commune had also to suffer violence and insult. Be-
fore setting fire to the village the hostages were set
with their backs to the parapet of the bridge while the

[Map 5]

170

CHANTEHEUX, CROISMARE

troops passed by, ill-treating them. As an officer ac-
cused them of firing on the Geraians, the schoolmaster
gave him his word of honour that it was not so. Tig
of a Frenchman/ replied the officer, 'do not speak of
honour ; you have none.'

"At the moment when her house was burning Mme.
Qierrier, who was coming out of the cellar to escape
suffocation, was drenched with an inflammable liquid
by some soldiers who were sprinkling the walls. One
of them told her that it was benzine. She then ran
behind a dunghill to hide herself with her parents,
but the incendiaries dragged her by force in front of
the blaze, and she was obliged to witness the destruc-
tion of her dwelling."

At Croismare^'' a mile or two further up the Ve-
zouse, on Aug. 25th, the Grermans fired at every civil-
ian they saw as they were passing through the village
in retreat. A mounted officer shot one man outright,
and then made two others line up in front of him while
he reloaded his revolver. He dropped three cartridges,
and made them pick them up. They asked for mercy
and he answered : ''Nicht pardon, cochon de Franzose !
Kaput !" With that he fired twice, wounding one vic-
tim in the shoulder and maiming the other's hand. A

"One 346-9.

[Map 5]

LVNEVILLE

night or two later, in the streets of Croismare, the re-
port of a rifle was heard. "That is enough to get you
and the burgomaster shot," remarked a German officer
to the cure. "Sir," replied the cure, "you are too in-
telligent not to recognise the sharp report of your own
German rifle. I certainly recognise it myself." The
officer, the cure adds, did not pursue the conversation
further.

At Embermenil^^ further east again, the Bavarians
shot a woman with child and a young man in the sight
of the rest of the inhabitants; but this was later — on
Nov. 5th — and meanwhile their columns, advancing
from north-west and north and north-east, had occu-
pied Luneville for three full weeks — ^Aug. 22nd to
Sept. 11th — and had perpetrated there some of the
worst atrocities of any that were done in the whole
invasion of Belgium and France.

(iii) Luneville.

The outbreak of the Bavarians at Luneville ^^ on
Aug. 25th bears a sinister resemblance to the outbreak
at Louvain, on the same date, of other Grerman troops ;
but there is little likelihood that these outbreaks were
timed to coincide, and little evidence, even, that either

"One 363-5.

"One 199-244; Five 144-7; German Proclamations: "Scraps of
Paper," pp. lo-ii (=:One 202 = Bland pp. loo-i), 12-3, 14-5.

[Map 5]

172

EMBERMENIL, LUNEVILLE

of them was preconcerted, at a fixed hour, by the
Higher Command. The outbreaks themselves, and the
extraordinarily similar courses they followed, are
accounted for by the general spirit which the
Higher Command instilled into the German sol-
diery, and by the standing orders they gave to the
hierarchy of officers through whom their executive
orders reached the men in the ranks. The private
soldier was encouraged to look on every French
and Belgian civilian as an unconfessed and treacherous
franC'tireur. The company officers and N.C.O.'s were
instructed upon the least suspicious circumstance — ^a
light, a tramp of feet, the report of a rifle shot fired
no matter by whom — to forestall trouble by unleash-
ing the worst passions of their men. The Higher Com-
mand accomplished its policy of "Frightfulness" by
more subtle methods than is commonly supposed. Its
influence on its subordinates' minds was penetrating in
proportion as it was indirect, and its responsibility was
often greatest where the individual soldier's action ap-
peared to flow spontaneously from criminal tendencies
in himself.

The evidence relating to the conduct of the German
Army at Luneville is summarised as follows by the
French Commission ^ : —

^One pp. 23-d.

[Map 5]

LVNEVILLE

"Luneville was occupied by the Grermans from Aug.
2 1st to Sept. 11th. During the first few days they
were content to rob the inhabitants without molesting
them in any other way. Thus, in particular on Aug.
24th, the house of Mme. Jeaumont was plundered. The
objects stolen were loaded on to a large vehicle in
which there were three women, one of them dressed
in black and the two others wearing military cos-
tumes, and appearing, as we were told, to be canteen-
women.

"On the 25th the attitude of the invaders suddenly
changed. M. Keller, the mayor, went to the hospital
about half-past three in the afternoon, and saw sol-
diers firing in the direction of the attic of a neighbour-
ing house, and heard the whistling of the bullets,
which appeared to him to come from behind. The
Germans declared to him that the inhabitants had
fired on them. He protested, and offered to go round
the town with them in order to prove the absurdity
of this allegation. His proposal was accepted, and
as at the beginning of the circuit they came across
the body of M. Crombez in the street, the officer com-
manding the escort said to M. Keller: 'You see this
body. It is that of a civilian who has been killed by
another civilian who was firing on us from a house
near the Synagogue. Thus, in accordance with our
law, we have burnt the house and executed the inhabi-*

[Map 5]

174

INCENDIARISM

tants/ He was speaking of the murder of a man
whose timid character was known to all, the Jewish
officiating minister Weill, who had just been killed
in his house, together with his sixteen-year-old daugh-
ter. The same officer added: 'In the same way we
have burnt the house at the comer of the Rue Castara
and the Rue Girardet, because civilians fired shots from
there/ It is from this dwelling that the Germans al-
leged that shots had been fired into the courtyard of
the hospital, but the position of the building makes it
impossible for such a statement to be true.

"While the mayor and the soldiers who accompa-
nied him were pursuing their investigation, the confla-
gration broke out on different sides ; the H6tel-de-Ville
was burnt as well as the Synagogue, and a number of
houses in the Rue Castara and the Faubourg d'Einville
were in flames. The massacres, which were continued
until the next day, began at the same time. With-
out counting M. •Crombez and the officiating minister
Weill and his daughter, whose deaths we have already
mentioned, the victims were MM. Hamman, Binder,
Balastre (father and son), Vernier, Dujon, M. Kahn
and his mother, M. Steiner and his wife, M. Wing-
erstmann and his grandson, and finally MM. Sibille,
Monteils, and Colin.

"The murders were committed in the following cir-
cumstances : —

[Map 5]

175

LUNEVILLE

"On Aug. 25th, after having fired two shots into the
Worms tannery to create the belief that they were be-
ing attacked from there, the Grermans entered a work-
shop in this factory, in which the workman Goeury
was working in company with M. Balastre, father' and
son. Groeury was dragged into the street, robbed there
and brutally ill-treated, while his two companions,
who were found trying to hide themselves in a lava-
tory, were killed by rifle shots.

"On the same day soldiers came to summon M.
Steiner, who had hidden in his cellar. His wife, fear-
ing some misfortune, tried to keep him back. As she
held him in her arms she received a bullet in the neck.
A few moments after, Steiner, having obeyed the order
which had been given to him, fell mortally wounded
in his garden. M. Kahn was also murdered in his
garden. His mother, aged ninety-eight, whose body
was burnt in the conflagration, had first been killed in
her bed by a bayonet thrust, according to the accoimt
of an individual who acted as interpreter to the enemy.
M. Binder, who was coming out to escape the flames,
was also struck down. The German by whom he was
killed realised that he had shot him without any mo-
tive, at the moment when the imfortunate man was
standing quietly before a door. M. Vernier suflFered
the same fate as Binder.

"Towards three o'clock the Germans broke into a

[Map 5]

176

MURDER

house in which were Mme. Dujon, her daughter, aged
three, her two sons, and M. Ganmier, by breaking the
windows and firing shots. The little girl was nearly
killed, her face was burnt by a shot. At this moment
Mme. Dujon, seeing her youngest son, Lucien, four-
teen years old, stretched on the ground, asked him to
get up and escape with her. She then saw that his
intestines were protruding from a wound, and that he
was holding them in. The house was on fire ; the poor
boy was burnt, as well as M. Gaumier, who had not
been able to escape.

"M. Wingerstmann and his grandson, aged twelve,
who had gone out to pull potatoes a little way from
Luneville, at the place called *Les Mossus,' in the dis-
trict of Chanteheux, were unfortunate enough to meet
Grermans. The latter placed them both against a wall
and shot them.

"Finally, towards five in the evening, soldiers en-
tered the house of the woman Sibille, in the same place,
and without any reason seized upon her son, led him
200 metres from the house and murdered him there, to-
gether with M. Vallon, to whose body they had fas-
tened him. A witness, who had seen the murderers
at the moment when they were dragging their victim
along, saw them return without him and noticed that
their saw-edged bayonets were covered with blood and
bits of flesh.

[Map 5]

177

LUNEVILLE

"On the same day a hospital attendant named Mon-
teils, who was looking after a wounded enemy officer
at the Hospital of Luneville, was struck down by a
bullet in the forehead while he was looking through
a window at a Gemian soldier who was firing.

"The next day, the 26th, M. Hamman and his son,
aged twenty-one, were arrested in their own house and
dragged out by a band of soldiers who had entered
by breaking down the door. The father was beaten
unmercifully; as for the young man, as he tried to
struggle, a non-commissioned officer blew out his brains
with a revolver shot.

"At one in the afternoon M. Riklin, a chemist, hav-
ing been informed that a man had fallen about 30
metres from his shop, went to the spot indicated and
recognised in the victim his brother-in-law, M. Colin,
aged sixty-eight, who had been struck in the stomach
by a bullet. The Germans alleged that this old man
had fired upon them. M. Riklin denied this state-
ment. Colin, we are told, was a harmless person, ab-
solutely incapable of an a^ressive act and completely
ignorant of the means of using a firearm.

"It appeared to us desirable to deal also at Luneville
with acts which are less grave, but which throw a pe-
culiar light on the habits of thought of the invader.
On Aug. 25th M. Lenoir, sixty-seven years of age, and
with him his wife, were led into the fields with their

[Map s]

178

PILLAGE

hands tied behind their backs. After both had been
cnielly ill-treated, a non-commissioned officer took pos-
session of eighteen hundred francs in gold which M.
Lenoir carried on him. As we have already stated, the
most impudent thieving seems to have formed part
of the customs of the Grerman Army? who practised it
publicly. The following is an interesting example : —

"During the burning of a house belonging to Mme.
Leclerc, the safes of two inhabitants resisted the flames.
One, belonging to M. Greorge, Sub-Inspector of Waters
and Forests, had fallen into the ruins; the other safe,
belonging to M. Gk)udchau, general dealer, remained
fixed to a wall at the height of the second storey. The
non-commissioned officer Weiss, who was well ac-
quainted with the town, where he had often been wel-
comed when he used to come before the war to carry
on his business as a hop merchant, went with the sol-
diers to the place, ordered that the piece of wall which
remained standing should be blown up with dynamite,
and saw that the two safes were taken to the station,
where they were placed on a truck destined for Ger-
many. This Weiss was particularly trusted and es-
teemea by the persons in command. It was he who,
installed at Headquarters, was given the duty of ad-
ministering the commune in some sense and was in
charge of the requisitioning.

"After having committed numerous acts of pillage

[Map 5]

LVNEVILLE

at Luneville, after having burnt about 70 houses with
torches, petrol, and various incendiary machines, and
after having massacred peaceful inhabitants, the Grer-
man military authorities thought it well to put up the
following proclamation, in which they formulated ri-
diculous accusations to justify the extortion of enor-
mous contributions in the form of an indemnity: —

" 'Notice to the Population.

" 'On Aug. 25th, 1914, the inhabitants of Luneville
made an attack by ambuscade against the Grer-
man columns and transport. On the same day
the inhabitants fired on hospital buildings
marked with the Red Cross. Further, shots
were fired on the German wounded and the
military hospital containing a Grerman ambu-
lance. On accoimt of these acts of hostility a
contribution of 650,000 francs is imposed on
the Commune of Luneville. The mayor is or-
dered to pay this sum — ^50,000 francs in silver
and the remainder in gold — on Sept. 6th, at 9
o'clock in the morning, to the representative of
the Grerman Military Authority. No protest
will be considered. No extension of time will
be granted. If the commune does not punctu-
ally obey the order to pay the 650,000 francs,
all the goods which are available will be seized.

[Map 5]

180

BLACKMAIL

In case payment is not made, domiciliary visits
will take place and all the inhabitants will be
searched. Anyone found to have deliberately
hidden money or to have attempted to with-
hold his goods from seizure by the military au-
thorities, and anyone attempting to leave the
town, will be shot. The mayor and the host-
ages taken by the military authorities will be
made responsible for the exact execution of the
above order. The mayor is ordered to publish
these directions to the commune at once.

'Henamenil. Sept. 3rd, 1914.

'Commander-in-Chief,

"Von Fasbender.'

"On reading this extraordinary document one is jus-
tified in asking whether the arson and murders com-
mitted at Luneville on Aug. 25th and 26th by an army
which was not acting under the excitement of battle,
and which during the preceding days of its occupation
had abstained from killing, were not ordered on pur-
pose to make more plausible the allegation which was
to serve as a pretext for the exaction of an indemnity."

(iv) Across the Meurthe.

While Luneville was being sacked by the Bavarian
troops who occupied it, other Bavarian columns w^r^

[Map 5]

181

ACROSS THE MEURTHE

pressing southward over the Meurthe. At Herimenil ^
they shot six civilians — including women of eighteen
and twenty-three and a man of seventy-seven — ^and de-
liberately burned 22 houses, after pillage. To facili-
tate the pillage the inhabitants were confined in the
church. "I did not want the church door opened," a
Bavarian captain shouted when a woman ventured out
to find milk for the children; "I wanted the French to
shoot their own people." And, in fact, a French shell
fell on the church and killed 24 of those inside. At
Rekainviller^ the Grermans carried off the cure and
shot him, and deliberately set the village on fire. They
burned three houses at Mont} At Lamath ^ they car-
ried off the mayor and two others as hostages to Grer-
many, and shot a man seventy years old. At Fraim-
bois ^ they shot a municipal councillor and an invalid
from Gerbeviller. "I saw German soldiers," states a
witness from Fraimbois, "firing at fowls in the gar-
dens. At that moment a patrol came by and arrested
me on the pretext that it was I who had fired. I was
brought before a council of war, biit chanced to be
acquitted." Advancing from Fraimbois and Lamath,

* One 335-341.
•One 323-8.
*One 334.
"One 329-33a
•One 331-3.

[Maps]

182

HERIMENIL, FRAIMBOIS

the Bavarians fought their way into Gerbeviller'^ on
Aug. 24th.

"At Gerbeviller,'* the French Commission report,®
"the enemy^s troops hurled themselves against some
sixty chasseurs-a-pied, who offered heroic resistance and
inflicted heavy losses upon them. They took a drastic
revenge upon the civilian population. Indeed, from
the moment of their entrance into the town the Ger-
mans gave themselves up to the worst excesses, enter-
ing the houses with savage yells, burning the buildings,
killing or arresting the inhabitants, and sparing neither
women nor old men. Out of 475 houses, 20 at most
are still habitable. More than 100 persons have dis-
appeared, 50 at least have been massacred. Some were
led into the fields to be shot, others were murdered in
their houses or struck down as they passed through the
streets, while they were trying to escape from the con-
flagration. Up to now 36 bodies have been identi-
fied" (names follow). . . .

"Fifteen of these poor people were executed at a
place called *la Prele.' They were buried by their
fellow-citizens on Sept. 12th or 15th. Almost all had
their hands tied behind their backs ; some were blind-
folded; the trousers of the majority were unbuttoned

'One 254-278. ^

•One pp. 27-9.

[Map 5]

183

ACROSS THE MEURTHE

and pushed down to their feet. This fact as well as
the appearance of the bodies made the witnesses think
that the victims had been mutilated. We did not
think we ought to adopt this view, the bodies being
in such ah advanced state of decomposition that a
mistake on the subject might be made. Besides, it is
possible that the murderers unbuttoned the trousers
of the prisoners so as to encumber their legs, and thus
make it impossible for them to escape.

"On Oct. i6th, at a place called le Haut-de-Vor-
mont, buried under fifteen to twenty centimetres of
earth, we found the bodies of ten civilians with the
marks of bullets upon them. On one of them was
found a laissez-passer in the name of Edouard Seyer,
of Badonviller. The other nine victims are unknown.
It is believed that they were inhabitants of Badon-
viller, who had been taken by the Grermans into the
neighbourhood of Gerbeviller to be shot there.

"In the streets and houses during the day the town
was sacked the most tragic scenes took place.

"In the morning the enemy entered the house of
M. and Mme. Lingenheld, seized the son, thirty-six
years of age, who was wearing the brassard of the Red
Cross, tied his hands behind his back, dragged him
into the street, and shot him. They then returned to
look for the father, an old man of seventy. Mme.
Lingenheld then took to flight. On her way she saw

[Map 5]

184

GERBEVILLER—LA PRELE

her son stretched on the ground, and as the unhappy
man was still moving some Germans drenched him
with petrol, to which they set fire in the presence of
the terrified mother. In the meantime M. Lingenheld
was led to la Prele, where he was executed.

"At the same time the soldiers knocked at the door
of the house occupied by M. Dehan, his wife, and his
mother-in-law, the widow Guillaume, aged seventy-
eight. The latter, who opened the door, was shot point-
blank, and fell into the arms of her son-in-law, who
ran up behind her. They have killed me !' she cried.
'Carry me into the garden.* Her children obeyed, and
laid her at the end of the garden with a pillow under
her head and a blanket over her legs, and then stretched
themselves at the foot of the wall to avoid shells. At
the end of an hour the widow Guillaume was dead.
Her daughter wrapped her in a blanket and placed a
handkerchief over her face. Almost immediately the
Grermans broke into the garden. They carried off Dehan
and shot him at la Prele, and led his wife away on to
the Fraimbois road, where she found about 40 people,
principally women and children, in the enemy's hands,
and heard an officer of high rank say : 'We must shoot
these women and children. We must make an end of
them.' However, the threat was not carried into ef-
fect. Mme. Dehan was set at liberty next day, and
was able to return twenty-one days later to Gcrbeviller.

[Map 5]

185

ACROSS THE MEVRTHE

She IS convinced, and all those who saw the body share
her opinion, that her mother's body had been violated.
In fact, the body was found stretched on its back with
the petticoats pushed up, the legs separated, and the
stomach ripped open.

"When the Gemians arrived, M. Perrin and his two
daughters, Louise and Eugenie, had taken refuge in a
stable. The soldiers entered, and one of them, seeing
young Louise, fired a shot point-blank at her head.
Eugenie succeeded in escaping, but her father was ar-
rested as he fled, placed among the victims who were
being taken to la Prele, and shot with them.

"M. Yong, who was going out to exercise his horse,
was struck down before his own house. The Germans
in their fury killed the horse after the master, and set
fire to the house. Some others raised the trap-door of
a cellar in which several people were hidden and fired
several shots at them. Mme. Denis Bernard and the
boy Parmentier, seven years of age, were wounded.

"At five in the evening Mme. Rozier heard an im-
ploring voice crying, *Mercy! Mercy!' These cries
came from one of the two neighbouring barns belong-
ing to MM. Poinsard and Barbier. A man who was
acting as interpreter to the Germans declared to a
certain Mme. Thiebaut that the Germans boasted that
they had burnt alive in one of these barns, in spite of
his entreaties and appeals to their pity, a man who

[Map 5]

186

GERBEVILLER—RAPE

was the father of five children. This declaration car-
ries all the more conviction, since the remains of a
burnt himian body have been foimd in the bam be-
longing to Poinsard.

"Side by side with this carnage, innumerable acts
of violence were committed. The wife of a soldier,
Mme. X., was raped by a Grerman soldier in the pas-
sage of her parents' house, whilst her mother was
obliged to flee at the bayonet's point.

"On Aug. 29th Sister Julie, Mother Superior of the
Hospital, whose devotion has been admirable, went to
the parish church with a mobilised priest to examine
the state of the interior of the building, and found that
an attempt had been made to break through the steel
door of the tabernacle. The Grermans had fired shots
round the lock in order to get possession of the cibo-
rium. The door was broken through in several places,
and the bullets had produced almost symmetrical
holes, which proved that the shots had been fired point-
blank. When Sister Julie opened the tabernacle she
found the ciborium pierced with bullet holes."

Beyond Gerbeviller, at Moyen^ they carried away
captive to Germany the cure and the mayor.
At Magnieres^^^ too, the mayor was carried away,

•One 361-9.
** One 343-5.

[Map 5]
187

IN THE VOSGES

a number of houses were burnt, and a Bavarian
soldier violated a girl of twelve. At Xaffevillers^^^ in
the Department of the Vosges^ civilians were used as a
screen. The place was pillaged, and a woman of sev-
enty-five was violated. Doncieres ^^ was pillaged, and
here a man of seventy-four was shot and 27 houses
burnt. At Nossoncourt ^^ 20 houses were burnt and
16 inhabitants carried away to Germany, of whom 3
died in exile. At Menil-sur-Belvitte ^* 52 houses were
burnt, an old man of sixty-one was used as a screen,
and 3 others were shot. At St.-Barbe ^^ 1 04 houses
were burnt, after being pillaged, out of about 150, and
in one of them a woman of eighty-three was burnt
alive. The schoolmaster protested to the Bavarian
commandant that civilians had not been firing, but the
commandant would not listen, and the burning went
on — "a horrible sight,'' as a private of the 170th Regi-
ment wrote in his diary on Aug. 26th.

(v) In the Vosffes.

These places lay between the Meurthe and the Mor-
tagne, but other columns ravaged the district between

"Five 228-9.
"Five 216-8.
"Five 208-9,

"Five 219-227.

"Five 210-5; Bland pp. 136-7, 335.

TMao c

[Map 5]
188

BACCARAT, DOMEVRE, BLAMONT

the Meurthe and the Vezouse, and pressed up the
Meurthe into the Vosges to join hands, if they could,
with Gennan forces operating from Alsace.

At Baccarat ^^ in the Department of the Meurthe
and Moselle^ the Bavarians conducted systematic pil-
lage under the directi(Mi of their officers, and burned
over lOO houses — 112 were destroyed altogether, and
only 4 or 5 of them by shells. "These pigs of Bava-
rians again," said the Badeners who followed the Ba-
varians into the town. "We are not the same race."
Yet it was a Badener General of Artillery who re-
marked to an inhabitant : "I never thought you had so
much fine wine at Baccarat; we have taken more than
100,000 bottles."

At Domevre^'^ 136 houses were burnt, a boy of
seventeen was shot at and died of his wounds, and two
other inhabitants were shot, one of them being seventy-
five years old. At Blamonty^^ when the Germans
marched in on Aug. 8th, they shot a girl working in
the fields. On Aug. 1 2th they shot an ex-mayor eighty-
two years old. On Aug. 13th they dragged off the
mayor and a cafe prpprietor to execution, on the ground
that there had been firing by civilians; they kept their
victims waiting in agony for a quarter of an hour;

"One 301-3.
"One 366.
"Five 185-9.

[Map 5]
189

IN THE VOSGES

then^ the cafe proprietor was shot and the mayor set
free.

''Parux^'^ writes a Bavarian diarist ^® on Aug. loth,
"was the first village burnt; then we let go, and one
village after another went up in flames. We cycled
across country till we came to some road-ditches, where
we ate cherries."

"During the night of Aug. iSth-iQth," another diar-
ist writes,^^ "the village of St.-Maurice was burnt to
the ground by the I2th and 17th Landwehr as a pun-
ishment for having fired on German troops. The vil-
lage was surrounded — one man to every yard — so that
no one could get out. Then the Uhlans set fire to it,
house by house. Neither man, woman, nor child was
to escape, only most of the live stock was carried oflF,
as that could be used. Anyone who ventured out was
shot down. All the inhabitants left in the village were
burnt with their houses."

The conduct of the Bavarians at Badonviller^ is
summarised by the French Commission in their Fifth
Report : —

"On Aug. 12th, 1914, the 2nd, 5th, 12th, and 16th
Infantry Regiments entered Badonviller, after hard

* Bland p. i95 = B^dier p. 22.

*^ Bland pp. 183-5.

"Five X48-161; Morgan p. 99.

[Map 5]
190

ST. -MAURICE, BADONVILLER

fighting in the outskirts. Their first act was to kill
an inoffensive landowner, M. Marchal, aged sixty-six,
who was sitting quietly in front of his door.

"Soon afterwards an action which began outside the
town was carried into the streets, where a handful of
French riflemen were making a stand; and the latter,
being forced to retreat, fired, while still within range,
on columns which were coming up to reinforce the
enemy. Infuriated by this firing, the Germans alleged,
as usual, that civilians had taken part in it, and the
order was given to ravage Badonviller with fire and
sword. Captain Baumann, of the i6th Regiment,
showed himself particularly dangerous. In order to
quiet him, M. Benoit, the mayor, parleyed with him
as best he could, assuring him that none of his fellow-
townsmen had opened fire. The officer then ordered
him to follow him throu^ the streets and have all
doors and windows thrown open. To make sure that,
in so far as his own house was concerned, the order
should be carried out, the mayor sent home his wife,
who was with her parents. Then he went to inter-
view the enemy general, to plead the cause of his
townspeople, and to ask that a stop should be put to
the acts of violence and arson that were already be-
ginning. The general's only reply was to allow a re-
spite of twenty minutes, before the expiration of which

all the French soldiers who had taken refuge in Badon-

CM«p 5]
191

IN THE rOSGES

viller were to be handed over, and all the men to as-
semble in front of the town-hall. M. Benoit hastened
to take the necessary steps for collecting his fellow-
citizens. While thus employed he was passing his
house, when an officer pointed at it, saying that there
had been firing from it. After uttering strong pro-
tests, the mayor entered his house with four soldiers
to make an inspection. A tragic sight awaited him
there. On reaching a room on the first floor, the win-
dow of which was open, he found his wife stretched
lifeless, with a wound in her breast. The unhappy
husband, beside himself with grief, was on the point
of flinging himself on her dead body, but the Grermans
dragged him off and compelled him to go with them
and search his neighbours' houses, while the body of
Mme. Benoit was burning in his house, which had just
been set on fire.

"In the same district the Bavarians also burned a
workmen's quarter and other buildings, besides kill-
ing a boy of sixteen, Georges Odinot, in his parents'
house. The boy was coming up from the cellar with
a bottle of wine and a small loaf of bread for the
family meal when, on entering the kitchen, he found
himself confronted by two soldiers, who aimed their
rifles at him. 'Spare me, gentlemen,' he cried, but one
of the two men shot hinv in the throat. The Grermans

[Map 5]

192

BADONVILLER—THE MAYOR'S HOUSE

then dragged the body out by the legs and flung it
into a blazing shed.

"Meanwhile, other murders were being committed at
the other end of the town, which had also been set
on fire. M. and Mme. George, their daughter, their
son-in-law, M. Gruber, and two young children of the
latter's, were caught by the flames in the cellar where
they had hidden themselves, and were fired at as they
fled. M. and Mme. George were killed in front of
their house ; M. Gruber, while holding one of his chil-
dren in his arms, was badly wounded, and dragged
himself into a meadow close by, where he died five
hours later. His wife witnessed his agony from a
house that commanded the meadow, but she was not
allowed to go and give him any help at all. Finally,
M. Spatz, an old man of eighty-one, M. Emile Bou-
lay, and his fifteen-year-old son were murdered in their
homes.

"During this terrible day a certain number of peo-
ple were driven brutally from their houses, and then
collected in the high-street and subjected to the gross-
est maltreatment. A man of seventy-five, M. Batoz,
though helpless and ill, was plucked frcon his bed and
dragged naked into the road. He died a fortnight
later. About a dozen young people had to lie flat on
the ground with their arms crossed, and soldiers pass-
ing near them amused themselves by kicking them,

[Map 5]

193

IN THE rOSGES

striking them with the butt-end of their rifles and
treading on their hands. During a scene of this kind
young Massel, aged eighteen, who had been wounded
by a bullet, fell into the river and was drowned. His
mother and sister, who witnessed the accident, were
not allowed to go to his help.

''While this massacre was in progress the enemy gave
thtaiselves up to an orgy of incendiarism and pillage.
Ei^ty-five houses were destroyed and the church was
bombarded by a battery placed on a height command-
ing the town. This bombardment, which served no
military end — ^for fighting had ceased — ^was carried
out in the presence of some hostages f ran Fenneviller,
who — ^to quote several witnesses — ^were obliged to take
off their hats and shout 'Hurrah !' with the gunners at
every discharge. It is only fair, however, to mention
that, upon representations from M. Berson, a professor
at the Condorcet School, who was spending his holi-
days at Badonviller and had been arrested there. Cap-
tain Baumann consented, while the cannonade was
going on, to send soldiers to form a chain and extin-
guish in its early stages a conflagration which had
broken out in a block of houses close to the church "

"During the fight at 'Batonville,' " wrote a Bavarian
soldier ^^ in a letter to a girl at home, "I bayoneted

"Morgan p. 99.

[Maps]

194

BADONVILLER—THE BOMBARDMENT

7 women and 4 young girls in five minutes. We fought
from house to house, and these women fired on us
with revolvers; they also fired on the captain too, and
then he told me to shoot them all, but I bayoneted them
and did not shoot them — ^this set of sows, they arc
worse than men."

The French Commission give the following summary
of Bavarian outrages at Raon4'ttap^^ : —

"The Germans entered Raon-Pl&tape on Aug. 24th.
As soon as they arrived they first of all burned four
houses in the Rue Camot, under the usual pretext that
they had been fired upon. Next day they placed ma-
chine-guns on the steps of the hospital and dug trenches
in the garden. When the Sisters protested against this
violation of hospital premises, they admitted that they
had selected the position deliberately to shelter them-
selves from the French artillery. Until the 28th they
went on burning down the town, using torches, gren-
ades, and an inflammable liquid which they squirted
with hand-pumps. Besides this, they ordered the inhabi-
tants to bring them all the petrol they possessed. The
Com Exchange, the girls' school, several other public
buildings, and one hundred and two private houses
were destroyed. Some soldiers, when asked by Dr.
Wendling why they were burning everything, replied :

*Fiye Z90-ao6» lummarited on pp. so-a«

[Maps]

IN THE VOSGES

Tfour town is badly lighted ; we must bri^ten up the
night a bit/

"In addition, we have to deplore the deaths of sev-
eral absolutely unoflFending people. An old man of
seventy-five, M. Richard, was killed by a bullet while
watching some of the enemy's troops go by from an
upper window of his house. M. Huck was murdered
on the night of the 24th or 25th, while leaving his
cellar. Four days later his body, with a wound in
the head, was recovered from the river, into which the
murderers had thrown it. A certain M. Poirel was
wounded mortally imder circumstances which are not
quite clear. M. Perisse was forced to walk in front
of the soldiers and struck down in the Rue Chanzy.
In the same street the widow Grandemange received a
woimd in her leg, from which she died scxne days after-
wards.

"During the whole of the occupation there were many
acts of pillage, and scxne officers and several Grerman
women took part in them. Every third day motor-
cars laden with booty went off in the direction of
Cirey and returned empty. The pillagers spread a
Red Cross flag over a waggon filled with casks of wine
stolen from M. MarcelofPs establishment.

"In the first week Mile. X., a domestic servant,
thirty-four years of age, was surprised by four soldiers
in her master's house. Three of them held her down

[Map 5]
196

RAON'UETAPE

while the fourth outraged her. Mme. Y. was the
victun of a similar outrage. A Grerman violated her
in a neighbour's house, after driving out the other peo-
ple there, revolver in hand.

"After all this had happened, the town was occupied
by the 1 5th Army Corps, and particularly by the 99th
Infantry Regiment. Greneral von Deimling had his
quarters in the premises belonging to the Sadoul fam-
ily. For a long time afterwards his name could be
seen chalked on the door.

"The Raon-rfoape hospital has been occupied by
three successive German field hospitals, the staff of
which turned out a great number of our wounded and
gave no attention to the rest. Their doctors behaved
scandalously in the place, getting drunk every night
and rifling the quarters of wounded or dead French
officers. About a dozen mattresses, many blankets, and
more than a hundred sheets were stolen. The doctor
in command of the. last field hospital distinguished
himself by his extraordinary brutality and coarseness.
One day he insulted shamefully the nun who was at
work in the kitchen, and threw several knives at her
head, complaining that she did not treat him with all
the respect due to his rank. Towards the end of his
stay he introduced from Grermany a female whom
he represented to be his lawful wife. This German
woman was of very loose manners, and smoked and

[Map 5]

197

IN THE roSGES

drank with the military surgeons. She was seen, hi
the company of officers, pillaging the house of a notary
and loading on to a motor-car the articles she had stolen
from it.

"On Aug. 25th, when the enemy entered the hos-
pital, an unarmed French infantry sergeant tried to
escape. Owing to his wound — the dressing on which
was very evident — ^they could easily have captured
him; yet the Grermans made not the sli^test attempt
to take him alive, but fired at him and killed him.
The same day a hospital orderly wearing an armlet
and an overall was fired at and had his clothes pierced
by a bullet while going into the garden to pick up a
waterproof cloth which had fallen out of the window."

At NeuveviUe4eS'Raon ^* the pillage was especially
systematic ; officers' wives chose what they wanted and
removed it in motor-cars to Grermany; then 45 houses
were burnt with the usual incendiary apparatus. The
houses left standing were found in an indescribable
state of filth, for the Bavarians had been continuously
drunk during the nineteen days they occupied the vil-
lage. On the day of their arrival they made a French
civilian carry a wounded French soldier on his back,
and then shot both from behind.

[Maps]
198

LA rOIVBS, BOVRMONT

At la Vaivre^^ a few milefr higher up the Meurthci
they shot the cure for possessing a large-scale map.
They also shot another inhabitant, aged seventy-four,
and burned down 6 houses. At St. Miehel-sur-
Meurthe^^ they burned three, and murdered two old
men-— respectively seventy-one and seventy-five years
old' — ^in the hamlet of Saulceray of the same commune.
In the hamlet of Bourmont^'^ of the commune of Nom-
fatelizcy they seized three men, dragged them to the
railway station at St. Michel, lined them up for half
an hour against a stack of timber, then shot one and
compelled the other two to dig his grave. The mur-
dered man's wife died the day after of the shock.

Pressing up the Meurthe, the Bavarians arrived on
Aug. 27th at SU-Die?^

'When they entered the town," the French Com-
mission state in their report, "an officer stopped the
accountant Visser as he was leaving a cellar in the
Blech factory, clapped his revolver to his chin, saying :
'Now, then, show us the way,' and had him led oflF by
his men. Quite close to the factory M. Visser met,
surrounded by Prussians, M. Chotel, who had just

*Five 230-1.

"Five tst-s.

*Fivt 336-9.

"Five 349-973; Bland pp. 321-3 (an aocoant of the dvilian screen
by one of die Getman officers responsible lor U) | German FtQclama"
sUMii "Scraps of Paper" pp. 16-7, sS«^

[Map 5]
199

IN THE rOSGES

been arrested in the road; and a few moments later
the soldiers, who were forcing their way into all the
houses, seized a young deaf-mute named Louzy and a
workman named (Leon) Georges. Suddenly a Ger-
man who was crossing the Rue de Breuil got a bullet
in his face, and the officer, beside himself with rage,
shouted : 'There they are, your dirty Frenchmen ! They
are killing our men at the street-comers.' He then
gave an order to his men, and said abruptly to his
prisoners: *Now then, to the front! Forward!* The
four hostages were now placed in front of the troops,
and soon came to a barricade, from behind which a
body of Chasseurs Alpins were firing. They therefore
found themselves caught between two fires. Chotel
sank down on to his knees, turned towards the Germans,
crying 'Cowardly murderers!' and fell dead. Soon
afterwards Georges also was killed; Louzy was shot
h rough the right wrist; and Visser received in his stom-
ach a bullet which glanced off two five-franc pieces in
a waistcoat-pocket and inflicted a dangerous, but not
mortal, wound.

"In the hospital where he was treated M. Visser
found himself with two lads, both badly woimded.
One of them, Charles Perrin, aged fourteen, had been
hit twice by the Germans when running to execute a
commission. He died on Sept. 2oth, 1914. Our in-
quiries have not resulted in identifying the other for

[Maps]
200

ST.'DIE

certain ; but news has reached us that somebody named
Paul Luquer, aged nineteen, died in one of the hos-
pitals at Saint-Die on Sept. i6th. He had been hit
full in the face by a projectile in one of the streets
while trying to give help to a wounded Frenchman.

"About 1.30 p.m. a German soldier caught sight of
an individual named Lafoucriere, aged eighteen, at the
angle between the Rue de la Prairie and the Rue
Dixieme-Bataillon ; he aimed at him and shot him
down, although the yoimg fellow had not said a single
word nor made the slightest gesture of provocation.
An old man named de Tihay was also killed in the
street while surrounded by enemy soldiers; but it is
possible that the bullet which struck him was not meant
for him, and that he was a victim of the fight that was
then raging.

"The next day — the 28th — ^young Bleicher, aged
twenty-one, who had been invalided out of the army,
was surprised by three non-commissioned officers at
Saint-Roch, in the commune of Saint-Die, in the house
of a friend of his mother's, Mme. Ziegler, on whom he
was calling. One of the soldiers shouted as he came
in: *Clear out !' Bleicher took a step forward and tried
to explain why he was there. 1 am . . .* — ^but he
never finished the sentence, being immediately shot
dead with a revolver. . . .

"During their stay at Saint-Die the enemy gave

[Map 5]

201

IN THE VOSGES

free rein to their customary activities of pillage and
destruction. They were seen to bring a safe to the
colonnade at the town hall and break it open there.
They ransacked 'cellars and shops. M. Badier, a wine
merchant, from whom they took goods to the value of
35,ocxD francs, was given some requisition vouchers,
signed by officers of the 26th Reserve Division and
of the 71st Prussian Landwehr Regiment. On Aug.
29th they set fire to the district roimd the Rue de la
Bolle, and, to make it impossible to bring help, had
the bridges which connect the district with the rest
of the town closely guarded while the conflagration
was proceeding. Forty-five houses and five factories
were burnt. The same day two French infantrymen
and two Chasseura Alpins were found in a cellar by the
Germans, led to where the Rue de la Bolle and the Rue
des Cites meet, and shot. Their bodies lay for four
dajrs in the public street."

The invaders penetrated to Mandray^ between the
sources of the Meurthe and the Alsatian frontier, and
murdered five civilians in this commune during the
course of their occupaticHi. One of them was a man
sixty-four years old, another a woman of seventy-five.
Most of them were murdered treacherously after being
commandeered as guides.

"Five a4o-S.

[Maps]

202

MANDRAY

But Mandray marks the extreme south-eastern limit
of the German invasion of Belgium and France, and
from this point southwards the French frontier has
remained inviolate. For from the first days after the
German declaration of war the French Army took the
offensive in Upper Alsace, and has stood since then —
not on enemy soil, but on soil once French and now
French again after the passage of forty-four years.

[Mtp 5]

ao3

VII. FROM MALINES TO THE YSER.

(i) Termonde and Alost.

The Battle of the Mame stemmed the wave of Grer-
man invasion (Hi a front extending from the Oise to
the Vosges. The country beyond this battle-line was
saved from the passage of the invader, districts behind
it were recovered as the Grerman armies ebbed towards
the Aisne, and then the stationary war of trenches
superseded the war of manoeuvres. This change took
place during the first half of September, 1914, but
the invasion had not entirely spent its force. Surging
back from the dam which the Alli« had set across
its original channel, it broke out again towards the
north and west, in an attempt to submerge the rem-
nant of Belgium, pass round the flank of the Franco-
British rampart, and sweep forward by a fresh chan-
nel into France. This second inundation was not so
gigantic as the first, yet it brought massacre and devas-
tation to regions that had previously escaped, and was
only stopped along the line of the Yser and Ypres
in the last days of October, more dian six weeks after
the Battle of the Mame had been fought and won by
the Allies.

[Frontispiece]
204

TERMONDE, ST. GILLES, LEBBEKE

This last Grennan advance was made in three stages :
the. capture of Termonde and Alost, the capture of
Antwerp, and the march from the Scheldt to the Yser.
The last stage rivalled in speed, and in the extent of
territory overrun, the movements of von Kluck and
von Bulow in the month that followed the declaration
of war, and all three stages brought destruction upon
the civilian population.

Termonde and Alost were the principal points on
the line of the Dender, which the Belgian Army had
held against the Germans since Aug. 19th, 1914. They
were a rampart thrust out southward from the fortress
of Antwerp, screening its commimications with the
French and British positions on the Channel coast. It
was a precarious screen, but the Grermans could not
strike at Antwerp freely till they had brushed it away.

The treatment of Termonde ^^ is described in the
Ninth Report of the Belgian Commission: —

"The Communes of Lebbeke and of St. Gilles-lez-
Termonde contain, with the town of Termonde itself,
a total of over 26,ocx) inhabitants. These places, to-
gether with the village of Appels (with 2,100 inhabi-
tants, lying west of Termonde) have endured terrible
sufferings.

^.f '-Ji; g 9, 24, 30/; ix; VI p. 40 (German Proclamation); xv
p.' 23 (ciyilian screen).

[Frontispiece]
205

TERMONDE AND ALOST

"On Sept. 2nd a German patrol came as far as
Lebbcke. Under the pretext that they were avenging
six Grerman soldiers, shot by the Belgian troops in
the district of Lebbeke, they set fire to three farms in
the hamlet of Hijzide.

'*On Sept. 4th, at four in the morning, the people
of Lebbeke were roused by the sound of lively firing.
The Grerman Army was attacking the place, which was
defended by some Belgian outposts, who soon drew
back to the Scheldt. At seven the Grermans entered the
village, breaking windows, smashing in doors, and
hunting away women and children. The men were
dragged from their homes, to serve as a living shield
for the advancing troops.

"Soon after the village was bombarded. The church
was taken as a special target, and was hit by several
shells which caused grave damage. About ten houses
were seriously injured. Then pillage and arson com-
menced. Twenty farms or dwelling houses were set
on fire, and all the houses in the centre of the place
were plundered. Only the appeals which the burgo-
master addressed to Grcneral GrSnen saved the village
from complete destruction. A great part of the Com-
mune of St. Gilles-lez-Termonde was also devastated.

"At 9.15 a. m. the Grerman Army began to shell
Termonde, and soon afterwards it entered the town
by the Rue de PEglise, the Rue de Malines, and the

, [Prondspieoe]

206

TERMONDE—SEPT. 4TH

Rue dc Bnixelles. Grennan troops advanced to the
Civil Hospital, and there arrested as hostages Dr.
Van Winckel, President of the Red Cross Association,
who was attending to the wounded, and also the Rev.
M. Van Poucke, the Chaplain, and M. Cesar Schel-
lekcns, the Secretary of the United Civil Hospitals.
They were taken to the centre of the town, accom-
panied by various townsmen, who were arrested on the
way thither.

"Meanwhile the soldiery were pillaging cellars and
the shops of confectioners, bakers, grocers, and wine
and spirit merchants. The window-frames gave way
imder the accumulated mass of bottles.

"'One company, imder a captain, burst into the
offices of the 'Dender Central Bank,' a private com-
pany, and searched them from end to end. Soon after,
a special squad entered the bank and blew open the
safe in the manager's room, from which 2,400 francs
were taken. They then forced the wrought-iron door
of the bank cellar, which contained the boxes deposited
by private customers. But there was a second door
to the cellar which resisted their burglarious efforts.
It was only the great solidity of this structure which
preserved the private safes below.

'^Meanwhile General Von Boehn was posing for his
photograph on the stairs of the Town Hall !

*'At about 3 p. m. some pioneers (of the 9th Bat-

[Frontitpiece]
207

TERMONDE AND ALOST

talion) set fire to the building-yards of Teraionde,
and to four groups of five dwelling houses in the centre
of the town. After this the German officers began
to direct those inhabitants who still remained in the
place to take their departure, as the town was to be
completely destroyed. About 5 p. m. the German com-
mander ordered all the criminals in the gaol, to the
number of over 135, to be set at liberty. They spread
over the neighbourhood.

"Next day (Sept. 5th) began the ccMnplete destruc-
tion of the town by fire, under the direction of a Major
von Sommerfeld. The hospital was not spared; it
was drenched with petroleum and set alight. The sick,
wounded, and old people were carried out, but one
epileptic man perished in the blaze. The chapel of
the Alms-house (Beguinage)^ a building of the late
XVIth century, was set on fire the same day.

"Meanwhile the German soldiery were engaged all
day in completing the work of pillage begun on the
previous evening. The jeweller's shop belonging to
M. Van den Dumel-Goedetier and many private man-
sions were thoroughly sacked.

"On Sunday, Sept. 6th5 the commandant. Major
von Sommerfeld, ordered that the destruction should
proceed. As at Louvain and Andenne, all the better
quarters of the town, where the soldiers would find the
most plunder, were set on fire.

[Frontispiece]
208

TERMONDE— INCENDIARISM

"It was only on Sept. 7th that the conflagration
ceased, the pioneers — ^so a German said — ^having to go
off to destroy railways. Most of the surviving houses
were found to bear the inscription 'Nicht anziinden'
(Not to be burnt). This day a German sentry was
killed, in front of Vertongen's factory, by a Belgian
soldier firing from the dyke on the further side of the
Scheldt. Major von Forstner observed to a notable of
Termonde: 'There are still the factories round the
town; if your soldiers hit another of our men, they
shall be destroyed, as the town has been.'

"On Sept. 4th the Germans had also shelled for
more than an hour the little village of Appels, though
no Belgian force was posted there. A child was killed
by a fragment of shrapnel. Some minutes after the
bombardment stopped the Germans entered the place,
and set fire to the house of Casimir Laureys, who had
been wounded by a splinter from a shell ; the wretched
man was left to perish in the flames. They burned
eight more houses, and sacked most of the others.
They shut up the parish priest and most of the inhabi-
tants in the church for about an hour and a half, and
only allowed them to depart after compelling them to
shake hands with their guards. They burned the house
of the rural policeman, because they found his mili-
tary cap there. They also destroyed the house of
Adolphe Veldermann, where they had found an old |

[Frontispiece] 1

209 i

TERMONDE AND ALOST

regimental tunic belonging to his son, then a soldier in
the Belgian Army. Four neighbouring houses were
burnt, and all the rest of the village was plundered.

"Many inhabitants of Lebbeke, St. Gilles, and Ter-
monde were arrested by the Gennan troops and sent
off to Germany. The parish priest of Lebbeke, his
curate, the commimal secretary, the notary, and about
450 other people from the above-named places, were
interned, partly at the camp at Soltau, partly at the
camp at Miinster. During the whole of their journey,
and for the first part of their imprisonment, they were
treated in a most odious fashion. While on the march
three of them, exhausted by hunger, tried to turn off
from the road ; they were at once put to death — ^two
were bayoneted, the third was thrown down on the
ground and clubbed.

"Twenty-five people of Lebbeke and St» Gilles were
murdered by the Germans on their own lands. Except-
ing four men (names given), all were killed by blows
from bayonets, picks, or hatchets. Most of them were
so disfigured that it was only possible to identify their
bodies by the objects found on them. Twelve men, all
of Lebbeke (names given), had taken refuge in the
farm of Octave Verhulst; they were tied together and
led to the back of the farm, where they were murdered.
Their bodies were all thrown into the same trench.
Six men of St. Gilles (names given) were tied arm to

[Frontispiece]
210

TERMONDE—SEPT. 16TH

arm and conducted to Lcbbcke. The Germans put out
their eyes and then killed them with their bayonets.
Three others (names given) were killed by sabre cuts
on the head, in the presence of their wives and chil-
dren.

"Two inhabitants of Termonde were killed at the
time of the entry of the Germans. One inhabitant of
Appels, named Theophile Van den Bossche, was
brought down by a revolver shot; another named
Wauters was wounded by a rifle bullet.

"On Sept. 4th, the day of the attack on Termonde,
six Grerman infantrymen fired twice, from a distance
of five yards only, on Dr. F. Hemereyk and on his
porter, though both were wearing the armlet with the
Red Cross. The porter died five days later — his wound
was made by an explosive bullet, which struck him
in the upper thigh. The wound was two and a half
inches broad where the ball entered, and three inches
at its exit. The examination of this wound was made
by three surgeons, at the ambulance set up in Ver-
tongen's factory. A third volley was fired at Dr.
Hemereyk after his porter had fallen.

"When Termonde was reoccupied by the Belgians
new atrocities took place. During the fighting some
German soldiers, under an officer, compelled fifteen
civilians to march in front of them on the road to
St. Gilles; of this party three were ladies and two

[Frontispiece]
211

TERMONDE AND ALOST

young girls ! At. St. Gilles, a man who had received
five bayonet thrusts in the abdomen was tied up (as
if crucified) to a door — ^his right hand bound to the
door handle, his left to the bell-pull.

"Camille de Rijken, a stoker of Termonde, was
bayoneted in the presence of his wife.

"On Sept. i6th, about 5.30 p. m., the Germans
began once more to bombard Termonde. The ma-
jority of the inhabitants, who had returned to the
town after Sept. 10th, retired to the left bank of the
Scheldt, as did the small Belgian garrison of 250 men.
A dozen shells struck the church of Notre Dame, which
had been recently restored.

"At 7.30 p. m. the enemy entered the town. When
the Belgian troops continued to fire from the further
bank of the Scheldt, some German soldiers compelled
Dr. Van Winckel to accompany them to the river; the
man who was on his right hand was killed, the man
on his left severely wounded.

"That evening the Germans pillaged the cellars of
three houses which had escaped the devastations of
Sept. 4th, 5th, and 6th. All the night the officers
kept up a drinking bout in the square before the Linen
Market where they had lighted two large fires.

"Next day (Sept. 17th) the town was shelled again
from 4 to 4.45 p. m. One shell struck the tower of
the Town Hall, which caught fire. The communal

[Frontispiece]
212

ALOST—SEPT. IITH

library and the archives fell a prey to the flames, but
the pictures were saved with three exceptions.

"After the fall of Antwerp the Germans occupied
Termonde in force. They drove out the few inhabi-
tants who remained, and proceeded to plunder all that
was left in the town, the factories were robbed of all
finished products and of certain raw materials. The
Law Courts, the Arsenal, and almost all the few
private houses that still stood intact were set on fire.

"It is clear from the statement that is herein set
forth, that the town of Termonde was systematically
destroyed, though certain German newspapers deny it.
It was destroyed by methodical arson, accompanied by
pillage. Even allowing that there was a military ne-
cessity for the bombardment, that bcMiibardment only
completed the devastating work of the German pioneer-
troops."

Alost^^ like Termonde, changed hands more than
once during the month of September, and though the
fighting was not so continuous nor so intense, the fate
of the civil population was hardly less terrible.

During the engagement on Sept. 1 1 th, a man cross-
ing a street in Alost with a pail of water from the well
was bayoneted by lo German soldiers. Another man

"f 12-27; g 25, 28, 33; vii p. 55; XV p. 22.

[Frontispiece]

213

TERMONDE AND ALOST

was shot in his doorway. Others, again, were driven
through the streets as a screen. One of the latter saw
the corpses of 14 murdered civilians lying in the road.
In hospital, a few days later, a witness saw several
more victims who were dying of their wounds — a girl
*of eleven with 17 bayonet-stabs in her back; a man
mangled by bayonet-stabs and blows from rifle-butts;
an old woman of eighty with a bayonet-stab through
her body; and a man who had been thrown, with his
son, out of the window of his house. This house had
been set on fire, and there were several other cases of
incendiarism.

On Sept. 26th the Grermans returned to the attack
and forced the passage of the river. In this engage-
ment they treated Alpst as they had treated the towns
on the Meuse and the Sambre. They covered their
advance by systematic incendiarism in several quarters,
especially along the eastern bank of the river; and
when they came under the fire of the Belgian infantry
and machine-guns on the further side, they shot or
bayoneted at sight any civilians who showed them-
selves in the part of the town that was already in their
hands. One witness*^ saw 9 corpses of civilians;
another '^ 7 ; another 37, including boys of twelve and

fis.

fi8.

[Frontispiece]
214

ALOST—SEPT. JgOTH

sixteen, and a girl.®* One'*^ knew personally of 21
civilians who were bayoneted or clubbed to death or
shot; another of 17.^® "The men were shot as they
came out of their burning houses," states a witness '^ ;
"no resistance was made." — "I saw a young man —
twenty-three years old, about — ^jump from the roof of
a burning house," states a second;®® "I saw Grerman
soldiers strike him with the butts of their guns after
he had come to the ground. He was lying just near the
footpath." — "I saw a number of dead bodies outside a
cafe in the road," states a Belgian soldier;®® "they
were about 9 in number; one about seventeen years of
age had 1 1 bayonet wounds in his left breast ; an old
man had his throat cut, and his head was nearly cut
oflF." — "I crossed the canal by means of barges when
the Germans were forced to retreat," states a British
journalist with the Belgian troops;*^ "I went to the
place where the dead bodies of the civilians were lying
and saw them myself. There were about 8 or 9 alto-
gether. Some had been shot from behind, others
bayoneted. One man had been bayoneted in the chest.

••fao.
-fiS-

•'fir.

"fiS.

••£24.

^•fas-

[Frondipiece]

215

ACROSS THE SCHELDT

This man was a butcher. . . . He was hatless and
bootless, and appeared to have been brought straight
from his house. The bayonet wounds had evidently-
been made with saw-edged bayonets, judging from the
character of the wounds which I saw."

After they had taken Alost, the Germans advanced
on Erpe^^ driving 25 inhabitants of Alost in front of
them as a screen. At Erpe the Belgian Army made
a stand ; a number of the men in the screen were killed ;
and the Germans set fire to houses in Erpe itself^ and
shot the male inmates as they ran out into the street.

(ii) Across the Scheldt.

Thus by the beginning of October the Germans had
made ready for the assault on Antwerp^ which they
delivered during the first two weeks of that month.
No exact figures are yet available of the enormous loss
of property and destruction of life which accompanied
the siege, whether through deliberate murder and in-
cendiarism or as a result of the bombardment. But
it is established *^ that, in the Arrondissement of Ant-
werp as a whole, without counting the city, 344 houses
were wantonly burnt down, and there is evidence that
women and children were murdered and used as screens

"£26-7; vii p. 55.
**Ann, 2.

[Frontispiece]
216

LOKEREN, HARLEBEKE, ROULERS

at a number of places between the lines from which the
Germans advanced and the zone of the Antwerp
forts.*^

Similar outrages were committed in the regions of
Belgian and French Flanders across the Scheldt, which
the Gemians overran in the latter half of October,
when the fall of Antwerp had opened the way.

Near Lokeren ** the German troops drove *2o
civilians in front of them as a screen — ^there were wo-
men with babies in their arms among the num-
ber. They used civilian screens again at Quatrecht ^^
and Melle.^^ At Melle a German broke into a room
where a woman of eighty was lying ill in bed, and
struck her on the chest with his rifle-butt; others sur-
rounded a woman and stabbed a child in her arms.
Near Harlebeke *^ they shot a boy and a young man
near a lonely farm-house, and burned the house to
the ground. They used civilians as a screen at Naz-
areth *® and Thielt ^® and Roulers.^^ They massacred

*• Breendonck : k 14. Willebroeck: k 13 =g 26. Duffel: k 12.
Lierre: g 27. Place unspecified: k 7.

**g3i.
**xv p. 23.

*• k 32-3 ; XV p. 22 ; d 4.

"k42.

**g 32-

**g 35; k 27; Bland pp. 318-9; German White Book, App. 49, Nos.
4 and 5.

[Frontispiece]

217

ACROSS THE SCHELDT

28 civilians at Staden.^^ . At Dadizeele ^^ they bumed
houses and shot civilians as franc-tireurs. At Zonne-
beke^^ during the fighting east of Ypres, British sol-
diers found a corpse lying in the pig-stye of a farm
with 8 bayonet wounds in the stomach, and in a room
upstairs the corpses of two little girls — about six and
eight years old — ^both shot through the head.

There were outrages of this kind throughout the
Ypres district, for the Germans, when they encountered
military resistance, invariably took their revenge on
the civilian population. In one place the corpses were
found of three boys and a girl, between seven and
twelve years old ^^ ; in another the corpses of a woman
and a twelve-months-old baby — ^both their throats
were cut, and the bed on which they were lying was
soaked in blood.*^*^

The bloodshed was varied by sexual bestiality. At
Wytschaete^^ for example, where there is no evidence
of massacre, most of the women in the village were
raped by Uhlan patrols. At hocre^'^ a woman was
raped when she was on the point of giving birth to a

'^R. pp. 136-7; German Wliite Book, App, 49, No. z.
"Bryce p. 179.

"k23.
•*ka5.

"k22.

••k26.

•'M. pp. 68, 71.

[Frondtplcoe]

2T8

BAILLEUL, NIEPPE, DOULIEU

child. At Bailleul ^^ on the French side of the Franco-
Belgian frontier, there is sworn evidence for the viola-
tion of at least 30 women and girls during the eight
days of the German occupation.

"At least five officers were guilty of such offences,"
Professor Morgan states in his summary of the deposi-
tions, "and where the officers set the example the men
followed. The circumstances were often of a peculiarly
revalting character ; daughters were outraged in the pres-
ence of their mothers, and mothers in the presence or
the hearing of their little children. In one case, the
facts of which are proved by evidence which would
satisfy any court of law, a young girl of nineteen was
violated by one officer while the other held her mother
by the throat and pointed a revolver, after which the
two officers exchanged their respective roles. The
ofBcers and soldiers usually hunted in couples, either
entering the houses under pretence of seeking billets
or forcing the doors by open violence. Frequently the
victims were beaten and kicked, and invariably threat-
ened with a loaded revolver if they resisted. ... In
several cases little children heard the cries and strug-
gles of their mother in the adjoining room, to which she
had been carried by a brutal exercise of force. No
attempt was made to keep discipline, and the officers,

"M. pp. 57-8, 67, 86-94; Bryce pp. 195-6.

[Frontispiece]

219

ACROSS THE SCHELDT

when appealed to, simply shrugged their should

Many women were violated at Nieppe;
woman there had her daughter violated by 13
mans, and her husband shot before her eyes.
Doulieu ®^ the Germans shot 1 1 civilians after mi
them dig their own graves. At Armentieres ^^
violated two women, one of whom they mutilates
killed. They violated women at Laventie^^
Estaires ** — at Laventie one of their victims was
dead in her room with a bayonet-stab throuj
body. In a farm near horgies^^ too, a womai
found dead — she had been shot through the st<
— and a girl out of her mind — she had been vi<
by a number of Germans in succession. But on
of the Yser and Ypres and La Bassee the invasii
Flanders was brought to a stand. The last few
of Belgian territory were never overrun, nor the Fl
frontier crossed by German armies between Bj
and the sea.

"M. pp. 67, 70.
• M. pp. 95-7.
"Bryce p. 190; M. p. 73.
"Brycc p. 193; M. p. 74.
"M. p. 74.

1 6.

[Frontispiece]

220

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